Right Kind of Wrong
by xXxCutiexXx
Summary: (read authors notes at the end of chapter 1 for explanations and such) Natalie is the very average younger sister of kickass superfemme Black Widow. When she's in the wrong place at the wrong time, to see a sister she has limited contact with, she becomes entrapped in a very bizarre situation that only becomes even more bizarre when she starts to fall for the Winter Soldier..
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 01

She didn't remember anything before waking up in a strange place. She sat up, rubbing her eyes as she looked around the sparsely furnished room, winced as she moved and it hurt. Correction, everything hurt. From the roots of her long caramel blonde hair to the tips of her toes, there wasn't a spot on her body that didn't hurt or ache and she was beginning to wonder just what the hell happened to her the night before.

She strained her mind to attempt remembering, the little she got was the loud sounds of a crash, gunfire and then being pulled out of a bar near her college campus, being carried or something. Had she been in an accident or something?

What was today?

And more importantly, where the hell was her sister, Natasha? The last positive thing she remembered was her older sister Natasha calling out of the blue, the two of them meeting for drinks at some little crappy dive bar. She'd said she had something to tell her, but she couldn't remember what it was, or if Natasha got to tell her in all honesty.

She couldn't even remember the conversation, come to think of it.

The door to the small room she was in currently opened quietly and the dark haired male stood in it's frame, his one chrome arm gleaming like a polished pot in the midday sunlight that shined through the window.

"Where the hell am I and who the fucking hell are you?" she shrieked at the man, demanding an answer.

He didn't speak. Instead, he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled the white satin sheet away from her and yanked away a good sized bandage on her left shoulder, making her yelp and howl in pain as a fresh wave of pain washed over her.

She gritted her teeth and looked at her shoulder, then at the man, asked him again, "Who the hell are you and what the hell did you do to me?"

He laughed, it sounded like a sarcastic laugh, but given how little she actually knew about the guy, she couldn't be entirely sure. Then he finally spoke and it was quiet, calm.. "I only saved your ass, doll."

"Oh.. Well that makes it all okay then.." she said sarcastically as she continued on with her rapid fire questions, angry and freaked out currently," What the hell happened to me? Where's my sister? Is she alright? She's not hurt, right?" she asked him again, staring at him intently, licking her lips slowly as he smirked and said "You were in a gunfight last night. And Romanov is fine, I'm sure." before standing, tossing the old bandaging into the garbage and going into an adjoining room, coming back with gauze, alcohol of both the rubbing and drinking kind, and what looked to be a needle and thread.

"I'm curious though.. What the hell's a pretty girl like you doing, working for Hydra AND Shield?" he asked as he eyed her intently, his jade green eyes fixed on her, curiousity filling them.

"Huh?"

"You were with Romanov. I'm assuming you're a spy too. She worked both sides."

"Romanov, buddy, is my sister. My name's Natalie. I'm 23 and I go to a junior college near that bar I was at with her. What the hell are you talking about, double agent? What are Shield and Hydra?"

"Hydra are the bastards who did this to me." Bucky said as he held up his arm, looked at her. His own memory was fuzzy, all sorts of fucked up at best.. But he knew he was supposed to have killed Captain America. Apparently, when he didn't, he pissed a lot of people at Hydra's headquarters off. Ironically, Hydra, as it turned out, was a part of Shield.

"Huh? What's Tasha got to do with this?"

"Tasha, doll, was a double agent. Now she's gone good.. And Hydra are after her.. Right along with the rest of them." Bucky said as he looked at her, asked her, "What do you remember from last night, huh?"

She shrugged, threw her hands up in the air and bit her lower lip before finally muttering, "Having drinks with my older sister."

Wake Up Little Susie began playing from her cell phone that lie on a table nearby and she groaned, reaching for it. The man's hand came down on it, it smashed into a couple hundred pieces and she shouted at him "Are you fucking insane? That was my phone."

"You've got a dirty little mouth." Bucky muttered as he eyed her, leaned in, looking at her. What the hell had happened to manners in this era? In his day, a girl would have at least kissed the man who rescued her ass from a certain death.

So far, all this girl had done was shout a thousand rapid fire questions at him, bug him about who he was and what happened to her, as if he had all the damn answers. Things were starting to come to him, but nothing was totally clicking for him just yet.

Except Steve.

He remembered saving Steve a few days ago - _or had it been weeks?, he'd honestly lost all track of time now the days stretched out in a blur, one blending into the other_-, leaving him on the bank of some river and walking away, or their most recent run in, where he'd been spotted by Steve, who chased him, resulting in a fight not even a few hours beforehand, actually.. Since then, he'd been going mostly on instinct.

Then last night, he'd seen that female agent that was with Steve and he'd tried to get closer, see if he could find out how his old buddy was doing, if they were all looking for him, if Steve had told any of the others on his little team of helpers that he'd found him, and all hell broke loose.

The girl sitting barely dressed in his bed currently had managed to be a dumb broad, gotten herself inserted right into the line of fire, taken a hit to the shoulder then almost gotten herself nabbed by one of the guys left over from the Hydra regime that'd been scoping out the joint to try and find his whereabouts. He'd taken care of that guy though, and he'd gotten this girl out of there in all the confusion and gunfire that broke out seconds later. Natasha probably thought that Hydra had discovered her little 'secret' found her 'weakness' and had come to get her baby sister, that he was holding the girl hostage.

Clearly, that wasn't the case, and he'd just gotten her out of danger, just until he figured out what side of things he was actually on now, without the drugs, without their propaganda rattling around in his mind. He hadn't thought things through, and now, as a result, he expected those damn Avengers to beat down his door any second, thinking the opposite of what he'd actually done, thinking he was still the 'bad guy'.

Really, he didn't actually know what he was anymore. All he knew was that he'd saved Steve and now that the truth about Shield and Hydra were out in the open, the lines were blurred for him.

Who did he work for?

Given all the things he'd had to do while under Hydra's influence, he didn't see Shield (or the Avengers for that matter) welcoming him with open arms.

He couldn't go back to Hydra because he'd disobeyed a direct order and they'd probably kill him on the spot. Not that he hadn't technically 'died' once before, during the war, but hey.. He didn't actually want to die a second time, either.

And he didn't actually know how long he had left, if the drugs they'd been pumping into him since they'd taken him during the war to 'experiment' on would wear off or not.

They hadn't worn off for Steve yet. He held out hope that they wouldn't for him.

Not yet at least.

Natalie eyed the man with a raised brow and then found herself leaning in closer as she held his gaze and said quietly, "What do you mean my sister's a double agent? She's a secretary or something.." her voice trailing off as she bit her plump lower lip.

He started to laugh and then stopped in mid laugh to look at her, curious. "You have no idea, do you, doll?"

"I got a name. It's not doll, damn it, it's Natalie." Natalie grumbled as she sighed and asked "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your sister is a spy. I mean she might claim she's not.. But obviously, Hydra was watching her last night."

She rubbed her head, the headache she had already, worsening significantly as she groaned and said "So you grabbed me why? I mean was this something you had to do?"

"No, I just didn't want to see a pretty girl get shot for no reason." Bucky muttered as she looked at him, brow raised for a moment. She didn't feel like she was in danger.. But she'd seen footage of this guy online and she knew he was a bad guy, not a good one.

So if he'd saved her life, he had some purpose in mind for her, right? That's what she was assuming at least. And if her older sister really were a spy..

She bit her lower lip and went to stand, wincing. Bucky steadied her and then asked "Okay?"

"Just.. I.. I gotta pee."

He motioned his hand towards the door he'd went through moments before, said calmly, "I'm out here." as he eyed her warily, almost as warily as she was eying him currently.

The second the door closed, he sat down and tried to figure out just what the hell he was going to do now, he had one of the Avengers family members.

He had the ultimate leverage right now, if he chose to use it.

But something inside him kept insisting that he shouldn't.. At least not just yet.. Not until he saw just how much Hydra did know about his whereabouts...

And not until he figured out which side he was actually on now.

Inside the bathroom, she groaned as she realized that he'd had to semi undress her to bandage her up, because apparently she'd gotten one hell of a gash on her leg that he'd obviously cleaned out and stitched.

Her skin heated. Technically, he'd seen more of her body than pretty much any man had, to date.

She used the bathroom and flushed, then stood there staring at herself in the mirror, wincing at the bruises and cuts, the scrapes and the bullet wound in her shoulder. "Wow.. When I get myself into serious shit, I really get myself in it." she muttered as the door was knocked on, he said solemnly from the other side, "Don't have much in the way of clothes around here, not for a dame at least. Here's one of my shirts though."

The door opened a fraction and his good arm, the human one, reached through, holding out a white button front dress shirt that looked like it once went to some kind of military uniform or something. She took it and slid it on over her own camisole tanktop, looked at herself in the mirror.

"How long are you gonna keep me?" she asked carefully, keeping the anxiety out of her voice, keeping it clear of nervousness, keeping calm as best as she could.

"Dunno." came the answer from the other side of the door as Bucky stared at the wall facing away from the door he currently stood in front of. "Haven't thought that far ahead. I do know we can't stay here. This hideout's been compromised so we're gonna have to move."

She bit her lower lip. So she was his hostage.

He did have some other intention than saving her life the night before.

"If you're using me to hurt my older sister, sir.. It won't matter.. We weren't ever actually all that close, we've actually only gotten fairly close in the past 3 or so years. Our parents divorced, she went with one, I went with the other.. Then you add in the fact that we're kinda opposites and.. Let's just say I highly doubt that taking me is gonna get you anything you want." Natalie insisted as he laughed and then called out "You decent in there?"

"As decent as I can be, considering you kind of didn't give me any pants to put on."

He palmed his forehead and grabbed her jeans from the night before, even though the rips were in suggestive places and he'd damn near had to cut them off of her to get to her leg and stop the gash on her upper thigh from bleeding out. "Here."

She took her jeans from the night before from his hands and asked in a shaky voice, "If I was in a gunfight.. How the hell did I wind up with a gash on my thigh?"

"Guess it was from the explosion." he called out as she looked in the mirror and mouthed "Motherfucker... What the fuck did happen?" before composing herself and then asking "Don't suppose you've got plans on at least letting me get in touch with my professors?"

"Not really, no."

"Damn it." she grumbled as she felt around in her pockets for any sort of clue as to what might have happened last night that she didn't remember.

She pulled out a cell phone number written on a napkin and for a moment, she remembered her older sister saying in an urgent whisper, "If anyone shows up for you, call this number. My boss.. He'll send someone for you, no matter where you are." before gunfire began to ring out all over the bar.

She shoved the napkin into her pocket again, she might need it later. She had a weird feeling that last night was just the beginning of a very bizarre turn in her life.

–

* * *

Natasha paced her room in the new 'hideout' as she talked to Nick Fury on the phone, briefing him on the events of the night before. "He's got my sister, Fury."

On the other end of the line, Nick sighed and then asked quietly, calmly, "What were you thinking, meeting her like that? You know that we're all at risk right now."

"I know, sir, I just.. I thought that they might come after her.. Given that I was a double agent at one point in time, and I did work for the KGB." Natasha said as she asked "Can we get her back?"

"We'll try. If the Winter Soldier has her, then it means he's got some kind of plan. And we have to figure out what his plan is, counter attack. You and Steven both are being careless right now. We're supposed to be laying low and working on our next course of action now that Shield's been compromised, not putting ourselves and other people at risk."

"That's my baby sister!Not some ancient cube, not some alien hell bent on taking over the world. The Winter Soldier has my sister, sir, and no offense, if you won't do something now, I will. I realize I shouldn't have dragged her into this, but I haven't.. I haven't actually seen her in a long time. You wouldn't understand." Natasha snapped as she slammed her phone shut and then went back to pacing her apartment, tried again to call her sister's cell phone.

It didn't even ring this time.

Natalie never charged the damn thing when she might actually need it. Natasha groaned as she glared at the phone and bit her lower lip.

She knew of a few people, one in particular, that she could trust with this... Did she assemble them and risk Fury somehow finding out and making a proper mess of it?

Or did she trust noone and go it alone?

Kicking at a can she groaned and wondered aloud, "Why in the hell did I expose her to danger like that?" as she realized mentally, _'Because you were still shaken up from the past few days. You were upset and you wanted to talk to someone normal. You wanted to see her again. You wanted to at least make sure she was alright, with your own eyes, that you took the risks you took for her, and that you didn't do it in vain.' _

Her cell phone rang and she picked it up..

"Hello?"

"You called me and hung up." Steve said quietly, his voice calm as he looked at the phone in his hand, looked at the doctors and nurses going by his room, wishing to God they'd clear him already, let him get back to doing what he was intent on doing..

He was going to find Bucky.

One way or the other.

"Turn on the news, Steven." Natasha said quietly as she sat watching the news for herself, watching a replay of the events from the night before.

Steven watched the news and saw him.. Bucky.. The Winter Soldier.. He watched his former best friend running out of a building that had been part of a shootout the night before, carrying a girl in his arms. He grumbled and then asked "I'm watching."

The girl was still missing apparently, and they showed a photo of her on the screen. Natalie Vernon.

"She's my little sister. She took my mom's maiden name when my parents divorced.. The Winter Soldier has her, Steve. You're the only one I knew to call with this.. Fury's giving me the run around and I'm already up to my eyeballs in deep shit with the hearing and Fury now, for last night. We're all supposed to be lying low right now... Just in case Hydra rises up and comes after us."

"And you want to get her back.." Steve asked, eyeing the phone, eying the medical staff that was in and out of his room, mulling it over.

He wasn't in shape enough to be leaving yet, but he had made a promise when he started all this.. To protect innocent people.

And Buck wasn't himself anymore.

He knew this.

And if Bucky had Natasha's sister, then something was up.

"Are you there?"

"I'm here.. Give me an hour." Steve said as she said quietly, "Thanks.. I'm not sure whether to tell any of the others.. I mean.."

"I know." Steve said quietly then added "For now, we won't. And for now, we'll only tell Fury what we think he needs to know."

On his way back to his own apartment, he made a call of his own, to the soldier he'd just met recently. He left the guy a voicemail and almost as soon as he walked into his own apartment, his cell phone rang.

"If you're going to try going after Winter Soldier, again, man, I want in." were the only words his new friend spoke. Steve filled him in on the latest as far as that situation went, told him about his most recent brush with the Winter Soldier, the reason he'd been in the hospital being examined earlier..

They'd been looking for Bucky for weeks now, he and his friend, since the last major run in that Bucky and Steve had, where Bucky saved him and walked away.

–

* * *

She'd just dozed off again when the door to the room she was being held in opened quietly. He came in, sat down on the edge of the mattress on the bed and looked at her, watching her for a few moments. "We have to leave now."

She looked at him and said quietly, "And what if I tell you I'm not going anywhere with you. I saw you on the news a few weeks ago, I know who you are, what you did.."

He looked at her and grabbed hold of her wrist firmly, said in a calm tone of voice, "You'll come with me.. I mean unless you just want Hydra coming down on you."

"Wow.. So I thought you were a hero? That you saved my life?"

"And I also put it in danger, when I did. Now that they know you're with me, can't just dump you off." he admitted as she raised a brow, confused by his logic, by this entire situation, to be completely honest.

Then again, she was just a 23 year old college girl who was majoring in Medicine, minoring in Dance. What'd she know about the secret agent life?

"_Apparently not as much as my big sister." _she thought to herself bitterly as she looked at the man who'd saved her life but was now holding her hostage.

She'd never really been as brave or as smart as her older sister. Or as pretty, or as athletic.. She had no clue what to do right now, how she'd get out of this situation.

"C'mon." he stated as he stood, hauled her up off the bed as if she weighed nothing and carried her out the door like a brute would.

"Put me down, damn it."

"You're hurt, you'll slow me down. And I'm not gonna have another death on my conscience. I mean if I even have one anymore." Bucky muttered as she said "Whoa.. The hell do you mean another death?"

Her heart began to race. Just how many other people had this man killed?

–

* * *

"So the last time you saw your sister, she was being carried out by the Winter Soldier? And you're sure it was him, not another one of Hydra's experiments?" Steve asked Natasha firmly as Natasha paced and said "It was him alright. He did the staring thing again.. Just like a few weeks ago when he tried to stop us from stopping Hydra's plan to take out half the world."

Steve and his friend exchanged looks and Natasha held out her phone and said quietly, "That's the last picture I took of her.. I took it about 10 minutes before everything went to hell in a handbasket. That's what she was wearing."

Steve took the phone and then asked "Why in the hell were you meeting her if we're all supposed to be laying low until Fury decides the next move?"

"Because, Steve, I wanted to see her, make sure she was alright, that I was doing the right thing. That everything I have done so far, has kept her safe and okay. I hadn't seen her before last night, since she was probably 13 or so."

"Didn't get along?"

"No, Steve, we didn't. Not for a while. Not with our parents in the middle of things. They sort of poisoned us against each other and either of them for a while. My family is messed up, okay? Why do you think I went into the business of being a superspy?"

Steve eyed her and then said quietly, "Good point." as she said "So.. If you want him, and I want my sister back.. We work together."

He nodded and said quietly, "Let's go to the bar and see if we have any idea where he might have taken her when he managed to get out and away from the gunfight. I can't believe you didn't call for backup when that happened."

"Steve, damn it, Fury already got me about this. I'm never this careless.. I just.. I thought since we were on a break, since Shield no longer exists.." Natasha stated angrily, bitter, worried about her little sister.

Had the Winter Soldier hurt her already?

What made him take her to begin with?

–

* * *

"Are we there yet?" she asked from the passenger seat of the car as Bucky weaved in and out of traffic, not speaking, not even looking at her, keeping his eyes focused solely on the road, keeping his mind focused solely on just how he was going to manage getting himself out of this one while keeping the girl safe.

And really, he wasn't entirely sure why the girl's being safe meant a damn thing to him. Her sister was the reason she was in danger if one really looked at things.

If Romanov hadn't come out like that, took that risk, her sister wouldn't be in this situation right now. He shook his head and said solemnly, "Soon." and promptly turned his attention back to the road.

She sighed, propped her head on the window of the car and looked out at the roadside, surveying the scenery as it flew past.

Where the hell was he taking her? And what did he intend on doing to her once he got her there?

She'd probably never been this freaked out in her entire life. And she found herself worried that the most important thing in all this was that she never actually got to tell her older sister that she did love her, and she'd missed having her in her life.

That all those things she yelled at her or said to her when they were kids and got to visit each other were just her own jealousies, her own insecurities.

She'd never felt good enough, really, and she'd taken it all, blamed it on her big sister.

Because it had been the easiest thing to do.

They pulled off of the main road and onto a dirt one and she looked at him. The car slowed down, turning into a dirt driveway that lead into a cabin or something by a lake. It was remote, out of the way.

"You do realize that this Hydra person will just find you here too.. Right?"

He looked at her and said "Sooner or later, yeah.. But by then I'll be long gone. Can you stop talkin so much? You're kinda giving me a headache, doll."

"Natalie."

"I'll call you whatever I want to." Bucky said quietly as he watched her, curiously. She stretched as he parked the car in front of a cabin way back in the woods and then she got out.

At least here, he could give her time to heal and rest without worrying about Hydra or Shield kicking down his god damn apartment door. He could actually make sure she was okay and maybe have enough peace and quiet to figure out his next move as far as all this went.

He just needed time to think.

He felt around and found the key hidden where he'd left it last time he'd had to use the cabin, unlocked the door. She stepped into the main room and looked around, gaping.

She turned to him and said quietly, "Thanks for patching me up." as he nodded and dropped the duffle bag he'd brung with him on the floor, the bag making a heavy thud as it struck against the hard wood floors. "Like I said.. No sense in an innocent girl getting shot."

She bit her lower lip as she eyed the antique record player. "Does it work?"

He shrugged and said "Don't know. Never had much use for music when I came here before." as she walked over, rummaged around in the cabinet the record player sat on, looking through records, laughing a little as she turned to him and said "Wow.. I thought I was old school with music."

He looked at her with a raised brow and echoed "Old school?"

"You've got all kinds of records under here, mostly swing music, stuff like Etta James and Elvis Presley too.. Even some Sinatra?" she asked as he shrugged and said "It's not old school if you've only ever heard that kind of music."

She eyed him with a strange expression and he explained "I kinda lost a good chunk of my life. I'd really rather not talk about it."

She eyed him again, but she dropped the matter, putting on Etta James at a low volume, humming along as she sat down on the brown suede couch.

"So.."

He looked at her and then said quietly, "You like to talk a lot."

She bit her lower lip, fell silent.

About 20 minutes later, he looked over to find her laying on the couch, reading a book she'd gotten up to et from a shelf while he'd been thinking and lost in his own thoughts.

_'You're not the same guy you were then, Bucky. You're a monster now. You're a Hydra created killing machine. They erased every decent thing about you, buddy. So what you saved this girl? When her sister and those other Avengers come for her, you're gonna have to face him again. And you know what's gonna happen.. It ends with one of you dead.' _transitioned into _**'But it doesn't have to go down that way. You can be on the right side. You can be a good guy. You don't have that serum coursing through your veins anymore and you're remembering more and more every day about the guy you used to be.. Before all this Hydra crap.' **_turned into _"It won't matter. Not to him, not to their leader, Fury, not to anybody. You're still a monster now, Bucky."_

Finally, for lack of something better to do, he stood and walked into the kitchen, staring out the window above the sink.

How the hell was he getting out of this one? And what was going to happen when he saw Steve again?

–

* * *

Angrily, the man snapped at two of his 'best' soldiers. "And you let him get away? Again? He was our best asset. He was the key to our entire plan and not once but twice now, you've all managed to let him slip right through your fingers! How can Hydra take over anything if there are idiots like you involved." as he waved in a man and said calmly, "Take the two of them down to the chamber. They disgust me." before going back to eating a sandwich.

They'd almost had everything they'd been working towards since the end of World War II. And twice in a matter of days, it had all been taken from them because of a few morons. And the Avengers, of course.. he didn't dare forget Fury and his little band of superheros.

"Soon.. It will happen soon, one way or another."

* * *

(authors notes)

I don't own the Avengers or anything that happens in the movies/comics. I wish I'd come up with the idea, but sadly, I didn't. This is not in any way shape or form canon correct, but I have tried to make an effort to honor certain plot points to the series Captain America and the movies made recently. Yes, this is a romance and yes, I will be pairing an original character with either Bucky (Winter Soldier) or Steve (Captain America). And yes, my original character is a 'sister sue'. No, I really don't care who dislikes that fact because Black Widow is my lady crush and yes, I wish I were really related to her awesome and epically bad ass self.

No, my original character is **not** a mary sue, at least I don't think so... She has spunk, flaws and a personality. She does really, really stupid crap sometimes (see above scenario) and she has bad days, she's had a less than perfect life.

She has a different last name than Natasha because I toyed with hisory and fixed it so that Natasha and Natalie's parents divorced when they were really young and Natalie, who lived with their mother, took her mother's maiden last name. I've also sort of given them sort of a sordid marriage, the kind that the kids are dragged into and hurt, so it makes her relationship with her sister a little more interesting in the long run. It's your typical sibling rivalry with the kicker that their parents were constantly telling them that the other parent didn't love the child living with them, that they were the favorite child and so on so forth. So basically, Natasha and Natalie are only just rebonding as sisters, so there's still tension there.

This story picks up after Winter Soldier, and it sort of throws my oc into the middle of Captain's search for his former friend. It also shows a more soft side of Natasha, and anything that confuses you in the first chapter will be explained further into the story. It's not just action or romance, it's a mixture of both with some comedy mixed in. I was inspired to write this when I saw Natasha show her 'softer' side during the Winter Soldier...

**THIS IS THE PART I NEED HELP WITH.. I STARTED WRITING IT WITH NO CLUE WHICH GUY I'D BE PAIRING MY OC WITH, JUST AN IDEA AND A SHELL OF A CHAPTER. I'M TORN BETWEEN THE WINTER SOLDIER AND CAPTAIN AMERICA AS MY OC'S PAIRING. IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHICH SHE SHOULD BE WITH, TELL ME.**

**AGAIN, NO FLAMES, PLEASE? NO CORRECTIONS EITHER. I'M HONESTLY JUST DOING THIS TO GET THE IDEA OUT OF MY HEAD.**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 02

"What the hell do you mean you almost had him?" Natasha asked Steve as they drove towards the bar, the last place she'd seen her sister, before the Winter Soldier made off with Natalie the night before. Steve looked over at her and said "He was right in front of me and we fought. Wound up unconcious and when I came to again, he was gone, I was sitting in an ER cubicle. Apparently, like last time, he got the best of me." as he took a few deep breaths.

He hated being wrong, he hated being made an idiot of, and he hated feeling this confliction he felt lately, where Bucky was concerned. Sure his new friend and Fury both made good points, that Bucky he'd known and grown up with was lost to him, but every time he thought about having to end this, having to possibly harm or kill his best friend, it just didn't sit well.

He wasn't sure if he'd be able to do it, honestly, but he didn't dare admit that to anyone. He didn't want anyone viewing him as weak or anything, and they wouldn't understand. Not the way Bucky would, not given what the two of them had been through before all this happened. The car slid to a stop beneath a red light and Natasha said quietly, "When you saw him before the whole thing at the bar.. Did he look like he might have been the Bucky you remembered?"

"I'm not sure." Steve admitted as he looked at Natasha and then the traffic light, remarked quietly, "Light's green, Natasha. We're going to find her. She's going to be okay."

Natasha bit her lower lip as she shook her head and said quietly, "That was the stupidest thing I've ever done and now I might not get to see my sister again. What if they take her back to Hydra, Steve? What if they take her back to their hidden headquarters or something and experiment on her too." which had him shaking his head, reassuring her firmly, "They won't. I won't let that happen. You won't let that happen either and you know it." as he really looked at her. He hadn't ever really seen the female spy this shaken, normally she was calm, cool and collected.

But then again, her sister was being held captive by a Hydra henchman who happened to be his former best friend from childhood. The situation in itself was a lose lose for everyone involved. They could save her sister, that much Captain America was certain of. He just wasn't too sure what he'd do about facing off against Bucky again, not fighting on the same side as him like they always had before the experimentation, before Hydra took his best friend and stripped away his humanity.

"Steve.. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Natasha." he said solemnly as they pulled into the bar near a small college campus. The parking lot and the building were caution taped off and there were a few goverment agents and some local cops milling around and talking quietly among themselves. Steve approached one as Natasha slipped between the tape near a back exit and snuck into the crime scene to look at the booth she and her sister had been sitting at the night before.

"What happened here last night?"

"Bunch of people shot up the place. Thank God nobody really got killed or seriously hurt. A girl went missing though, can't figure out if one of the guys kidnapped her or she just slipped out." the detective told him honestly, Steve nodded and thanked him for his time just as Natasha emerged from the same way she'd went into the building, looking around, slipping past the law enforcement agents and the goverment agents. She caught up to Steve and said quietly, "Her purse was in there. She has her cell phone and the phone number I gave her isn't in her purse like I thought it'd be."

He nodded and then asked, "Did you remember what direction he took her out?" as Natasha nodded and pointed to the back exit on the other side of the bar. He looked at the buildings surrounding it and he remembered something. "I think I might know where he might be.. If he's even been back there." Steve said as Natasha watched him, brow raised.

"My old apartment building.. The one we both grew up in. It's still standing but nobody really lives in it." Steve muttered as Natasha nodded and said "So tell me directions on the way." as they got into her Corvette and took off in the direction of Steve and Bucky's old neighborhood.

* * *

Natalie sat up and stretched, groaning as a fresh wave of pain rolled over her body. She slid off the bed she'd been lain in and grabbed the white button down shirt, sliding it on as she tiptoed out into the hallway, peeking around, not seeing the first sign of her strange captor. She dug around and found the number in her pocket, was just about to pick up the phone in the cabin's kitchen when a hand wrapped around her wrist tightly,and the man said quietly, "Now what the heck do you think you're doing?"

"I was.. I was gonna call my sister. So she knows I'm not dead." Natalie said as she turned to look up at him, pleading with her eyes. He laughed and shook his head, the laugh sounded hollow, irritated. Then he said calmly, "Phone doesn't work. Even if it did, there's no way in hell I'd let you call her. You don't get it, do you? Until I figure out what the hell we're going to do, you're stuck. Here and with me." as he scanned her with his almost jade green eyes.

"We're stuck? The only reason I'm stuck, man, is because you won't just let me go. Look, I very seriously doubt that this Hydra person would come after me, because you saved me." Natalie started, only to have him hold his index finger to her lips, shushing her as he laughed and shook his head, sarcastically retorted "You have no idea just how serious this all is. Just stop. Stop talking for now, I can't think." as he looked at her a moment, his index finger resting on her lip casually, holding her gaze, her body pinned against the wall the telephone was mounted to with his hips. _Why in the name of Christ above had he saved her_, he wondered now as he stood there looking at her.

She brushed his index finger down and glared, not amused. "Don't shush me. You're the one who started all this, damn it! You save my life then hold me against my will and tell me it's for my own good. You tell me I don't know anything, but you won't bother telling me the things I don't know, you'd rather laugh at me for not just knowing them. Forgive me, sir, for being a god damn human and not some international super spy or femme fatale, or a goverment created killing machine." she grumbled as he looked at her intently, his eyes honing in on her full soft lips.

In that way, she was like her sister, that Black Widow gal.. She had these full and gorgeous lips, almost hypnotic. Almost enough to put him in a proper trance. But then thankfully, his common sense and his soldiers instincts kicked in and he backed away, breaking eye contact with her, making himself focus on a wall or a window in the room and not on her lips or her body, or her hair, or the way her nostrils flared a little when she was pissed, the way her cheeks flushed as she grumbled angrily at him.

She bit her lower lip, her lips tingling as she watched him, brow raised. "Well? If I'm such an idiot, sir, tell me what I'm not getting."

"I'd love to, doll, but it's need to know information and clearly, you don't need to know. It's for the best." Bucky said as he stared a hole through the window that looked out into the woods surrounding their hideout. Why in the hell had he taken her? She was annoying, chatty, easily spooked, clumsy, infuriatingly pretty and she was a huge liability. If she got hurt.. It'd be the quickest way to bring down at least two of the damned Avengers on his head.

Then there was Hydra, they were looking for him, now her.

She growled and kicked at the wall she still stood against, scowled in his direction as she muttered something under her breath he couldn't make out, walked out of the room finally. The door to the secondary bedroom in the cabin banged shut and he sank down on the couch in the room he still stood in, taking a few long and deep breaths. Everything felt like a raw nerve today, his memories, his humanity was slowly returning. Yesterday, he'd been more robotic, less of a man. Today, he could feel things.

He didn't really think he liked being able to feel things, because apparently, he'd only thought things were confusing yesterday and the days _(weeks? months?) _before without his humanity returning.

Down the hallway, in the closed room, soft music began to play and he raised a brow at the door as he heard movement inside the room. He picked up a magazine and focused, _or tried to, rather, _on reading it instead of trying to figure out what his captive was doing in her room.

The less he thought about the girl, the better off he was, definitely the better off she was. Because this situation only had 2 possible endings for now, or as he saw it, at least, and neither of them were a happily ever after. Not now that the truth about Hydra/Shield was out.

* * *

"This.. Is it?" Natasha asked Steve who looked at the apartment complex, raked his hand through his hair and said quietly, "Yeah. This is where I grew up, where he grew up. I'm pretty sure he kept his parents place, that's probably the only reason that the city hasn't knocked down the building." while Natasha looked around and asked "Well?"

"The spare key's been moved. Move back?" Steve said as he kicked in the door to Bucky's old apartment. He could tell that someone had been there, and recently, because there was a bowl of cereal still sitting out, there was a bottle of tequila on the table, it's contents half drank. "He's been here." Steve said quietly as Natasha nodded and then grimaced, bit her lower lip and pointed out, "There's blood.. On those bedsheets by the laundry chute." walking over, bending. Her stomach churned and she kept her face hidden as she teared up a little, fearing the worst.

Steve walked around the apartment quietly, looking in rooms, under beds, around the apartment in any possible hiding spot. "Why'd you take her, huh?" he muttered to himself, because it didn't make sense. If neither shield nor hydra had known about Natalie, about who's baby sister she was, then why would Bucky just grab her the night he had?

Something wasn't making sense, but for the moment, he focused on what he did remember about his last two run ins with Bucky as the Winter Soldier. He'd seemed inhuman, cold.. Almost like a robot programmed to kill or something. He paced the room Bucky used to sleep in and bent when he saw a blinding pink piece of fabric just out of sight under the bed.

He picked up the strap to a bra and looked at it, leaned out and asked Natasha with slightly reddening cheeks, "Your sister.. She had pink lingerie or something?" holding the thin strap out to Natasha who took it, looked at it and nodded quietly. "They're not here." he said as he added "My guess is that Bucky moved 'em or something.. why, I have no idea. But I really don't think he'd kill her."

"We don't know that, Steve, because he is one of the bad guys now." Natasha said as Steve nodded, remarked solemnly, "And he did save my life."

"And almost killed you the night before he took my sister. He's not the same guy." Natasha said as Steve nodded and said quietly, "I know. But somewhere, deep down.. I gotta believe that Bucky's still in there."

Natasha studied him for a few moments and then asked "Is there anywhere else he might have taken her?" as Steve happened to look down, see something written on a napkin, it looked like coordinates or something if he had to guess. He held it up and then said solemnly, "No, but if I've gotta guess, Natasha, then we find out what these numbers are, or where they lead, we'll find them."

"And we get her back?"

"Basically, yes." Steve said calmly as he looked at her and then said " What were you telling her that night?"

Natasha sighed and said quietly, "I was trying to make up for lost time, apologize to her in person.. And I was going to give her Fury's number, just in case this went badly and either Shield or Hydra, whoever they are now came looking for a way to hurt me. I mean I did just testify in that hearing, it was all over the news." as she looked at Steve who nodded and said "Let's get going, see if we can't figure out where these coordinates lead."

* * *

The door she'd slammed an hour or so before creaked open quietly as a Santana song played and she lie on the bed, trying to take a nap. She peeked through one eye, saw him standing in the doorway, leaned casually, his hair wet from a shower or from sweat, the tanktop he wore soaked also. "My name was James Buchanan Barnes.. Everybody called me Bucky though." he said quietly as he eyed her intently, warily almost.

"What do you mean was?"

"I can't be him anymore.. Technically, doll, James Buchanan Barnes died in World War II. Then Hydra got hold of me, did a similar experiment on me that they'd done to my friend, Steve. Or the guy you've been seeing on tv lately as Captain America? The guy who saved Manhattan with the help of this group called the Avengers?" Bucky said as he moved into the room, sat down on the edge of the twin sized bed, looked at her and then said solemnly, " I became this thing, this guy people started to call the Winter Soldier... After they unfroze me, I mean."

Natalie sat up, looking at him in curiousity as she asked with a raised brow, "Unfroze? What the hell? Who the hell had you, anyway?" as he looked at her, said quietly, "This organization, Hydra. And by unfroze, doll, I mean that I was frozen when I was around the same age as Steve. And they only unfroze me a few years ago."

She gaped at him and leaned in, brushed a hair out of his eye, said calmly, "It was getting on my nerves." as she leaned back, nodded for him to continue, listening intently as he did, "I told you all this so maybe you'd understand. I ain't some good guy anymore. Can't be saved." while looking at his hands. She nodded, biting her lower lip as she studied him out of the corner of her eyes, wondering why he seemed like he had these extremely bipolar mood swings, or he had since he'd taken her captive.

"Maybe if you let me go?" she tried, only to be met with a laugh as he shook his head and said "You're better off with me right now than loose out there. Hydra would just grab you up, use you against your sister.. Against.."

"You?" she wondered aloud as he looked at her and said "Nope.. Let's just say Hydra knows how the Avengers operate.. If they can rattle any of them right now, when they're supposed to be at their weakest? They'll do it without a single afterthought." as he looked at her a moment, adding to himself _'And yeah, doll, me.. Because I gotta admit, I was toying with the idea of walkin over, asking your name before all hell broke loose a few nights ago, before I realized just who's kid sister you were and got into this situation.'_

But he'd never admit it out loud. Hydra had pretty much taught him by now that any emotions were a weakness, and everytime he had a problem, everytime he'd glitched and shown them, he'd had a damn needle jabbed in his neck or he'd gotten electroshock therapy. Basically, he figured that he'd probably been zapped by enough bolts by now to learn that emotions were bad. They served no purpose whatsoever.

But being free, being on the lam, with this girl and no shots, no electroshock, things were starting to come back to him. He was starting to slowly piece together what he'd forgotten about himself before his involuntary ice nap, and his awakening/reprogramming. And he had mixed feelings about this.

"So my sister.. She's that girl? The one in black?" Natalie asked, eyes wide as things about her older sister started to make sense and fall into place. They hadn't before, now they were starting to. She was starting to put together the bigger picture. Her sister, apparently, took a huge risk when she'd asked her to meet up a few nights ago after having nothing but email and phone contact for years.

"Mhmm." Bucky said as she took a few deep breaths and swore under her breath, making him look at her. "So when you grabbed me? Was it under this Hydra's orders?"

"Nope.. Did it so Romanov could concentrate, take as many of 'em out as she could." he admitted as she looked at him and asked "Without having to worry about me?" which made the man nod his head. "Bucky?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any fucking idea what you're gonna do now? I mean that organization.. They're gonna find you.. From the sound of it, you're in really, really deep shit." Natalie asked as she looked at him, her eyes locking on his as she leaned in, frowned in concern.

"What?" he asked as she shrugged, backed away and stood, walking out of the room, into the kitchen as she thought about everything he'd told her just now, and some of the things he hadn't said.

_'Nattie, don't be that idiot.. Don't fall for another toxic guy. Do not let the eyes, the swagger, anything about James Barnes get to you. If you do, you're never going to get out of this in one piece.. What would your sister do, if he had her captive? She'd be trying to escape, that's what she'd do." _turned into _**'But you've been to the Captain America Exhibit a thousand and one times, Nattie.. You're a nerd when it comes to history, it was almost your secondary minor. This guy wasn't always bad, he didn't always work for the bad sector of the goverment. And because he saved your ass, Nattie, he's now in danger.'**_and she frowned, raking her hands through her long caramel blonde hair as she paced the kitchen, lost in thought.

He watched her from the doorway, leaned casually, lost in thought himself. Everything seemed to be leading towards that final showdown, and he wasn't sure if he wanted it to go down that way. But from where he stood, it was the only way out.

Someone would die, plain and simple.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 03

He'd just fallen asleep, she knew it, the sounds of his snores practically raised the roof. She slid out of bed and slid on her shoes, then slid on a jacket. She knew that if she were going to escape, she had to do it now, before she got too caught up in the guy, got too attached and the lines got too blurry. Because she knew, there was no mistaking it, she was his hostage.

And to some degree, she felt that if he had to, he'd hurt her to get out of his situation alive. She knew that wasn't the guy he used to be, but she'd been around him long enough now to know that was the guy that Hydra - or whatever the people who'd brainwashed him called themselves- turned him into. The old James Barnes was gone. In his place was this Winter Soldier, almost robotlike. Every now and then the past few days, she'd seen glimpses of James Barnes, but not often enough to warrant her sticking around.

She slowly opened the door that seperated her 'room' from the part of the cabin he used, and she tiptoed out. His snores stopped and she paused, squeezing herself against a wall. The snoring started again and she sighed as she looked at him, lying on the couch, sleeping, shirtless. Biting her full lower lip she reminded herself _'Damn it, Nattie, go! This guy might be hot as hell, he might have once been this amazing guy, he might have once been a good guy.. But he's not anymore, he even told you this. Get the hell out of Dodge, now. Get back to your sister.'_

Secure in the knowledge, - or at least she thought she was-, that he was sleeping soundly, she started to walk behind the couch. She opened the door to the cabin and stepped out, onto the porch. She was just about to walk down the staircase and take off at a mad run for the woods, the treeline surrounding the cabin, when his strong arms gripped her waist, hauled her up and onto his shoulders as he said "And I thought I could trust ya enough not to have to lock the door. What the hell was I thinkin, doll?" quietly as he opened the door with his foot, walked back inside, locking the door behind him. He paced a few moments in front of her where he'd dropped her on the couch, his good hand, the human one, raking slowly through thick and sleep matted dark hair.

"Why in the hell would ya go and do that, huh? I told you.. If you get away from me, there's no promising that you're actually gonna survive." Bucky said as he stopped and studied her intently. She bit her lower lip, her s tomach churned nervously and she thought to herself _'Great. And now you've pissed off a goverment created killing machine. Who just might kill you or do God only knows what to you. So far, he's been decent. But now, with you trying to escape a second time, the bad guy might come out.' _as she looked up at him, waiting on him to do something to hurt her, prove her theory about his not being James Barnes anymore right.

She shrank back and he leaned in and said quietly, "I'm scaring you? I'm scaring you? Doll, I'm the least of your worries right now. Because trust me, if Hydra gets their hands on you and they know who's sister you are? They'll do things you don't even want to imagine. And I'm scaring you. Ha." as he trailed his finger, the good one, the human one, slowly across her full lower lip, giving her a serious and solemn smirk.

"If you'd just let me have some kind of contact with my sister, someone.." she muttered, scowling at him in anger and defiance when that was met with a laugh as he shook his head and pointed out "Why? So you can call her friends to come get you? Don't think so. Not until I figure some things out. For one thing, I can't be sure they're not all Hydra operatives too. Shield was part of Hydra, remember? Or did you just tune that part of the news out, Blondie?"

She glared at him and crossed her arms, scowling as she thought about what he said. He seemed so confused right now, angry, torn between sides in some invisible war. And naturally, she'd gone and gotten herself caught smack in the middle of things. She mentally kicked herself and wondered why in the hell she even agreed to meet her older sister that night, why she hadn't just blown Tash off.

She stood, was about to try and make one more desperate dash for it, but with lightning quick reflexes, he grabbed her, both of them landing neatly on top of each other on the couch. He grabbed her wrists and said quietly, "You're gonna have to get it through that head of yours, Blondie.. Until I know who I can trust? You're not goin anywhere. Because I am not about to have your death on my hands too. I've got enough bad stuff on my hands, on my conscience. Not adding your death to it."

She groaned and then tried squirming from beneath him as her knees picked the oddest time in the history of the world to turn to jello and her heart skipped a beat or two. _'What the fuck is wrong with me, seriously? I **cannot** be attracted to him, I **cannot possibly feel something** for this guy. Maybe what he used to be, becasue that guy.. He was my ideal man. Him or his friend Captain America.. But I cannot be attracted to this monster, I cannot start to feel bad for him. He didn't have to grab me that night. He doesn't have to do this. And I'm probably not in any real danger, he's just batshit crazy or something and is doing this for kicks.. So why the hell then, body, would you betray me?' _as she looked up at him, confused, trying to figure this whole strange thing out.

And naturally, she couldn't.

* * *

The news ran another story on Natalie, how she was missing, how she'd been missing now for almost a week or two, how she'd been last seen being carried out of a bar on campus by an unknown male with a mechanized arm during the middle of a shootout. Steve watched the footage, biting his lip and looking at Natalie's picture intently. He was trying to get inside his former friend's head, but so far, he was having no such luck.

"Have you figured out any reason why he might have grabbed her that night?" Natasha's voice cut into his train of thought. He looked up and shrugged solemnly, shook his head and said quietly, "Nope. I mean if this were Bucky.. But he's not the same guy. I'm really starting to see that." as his eyes fixed on the girl's photo again, on the news. Natasha followed her teammate's gaze and then said quietly, "When we were younger, our parents split us up. She had to go with our mom, I got lucky, I was older, I got to choose. I chose to go with our dad. I hadn't seen her since she was a lot younger." as she sat down, reclined her legs and said "And I wouldn't have tried to see her that night, if I hadn't gotten a weird voicemail from some man, claiming that my sister was going to pay for my actions." in defense, just in case Steve was doubting her reliability as an agent because she'd done this sloppy thing, taken this needless risk.

"I know. I get it." he explained patiently, then asked "How old was she?"

"She's 23. She was in college, I think the last time I talked to her, she'd chosen to go into medicine, she was minoring in dance. She loved to dance. I always called her little old woman.. She was kind of weird, like a little old lady trapped in a modern girls body." Natasha admitted as she sipped a beer and then said quietly, "She.. She wasn't ever good at relationships. I mean, she always picks the worst possible guy to fall for." with a sigh, laughing a little. Steve looked at Natasha and asked "Meaning?"

"She was sweet, kinda naieve. She'd pretty much believe or help anybody she thought was getting screwed over, she hated bullies. Feisty too. I just hope we get her back before Hydra actually grabs her." Natasha said quietly as she watched the re-airing of the news report, stared at her cell phone, willing it to ring. It didn't, of course.

"We will, Natasha." Steve said quietly as he thought about the little Natasha had opened up to him about herself, about her sister, curious about the girl. What about her had made Bucky grab her? And why did he get the feeling that this was going to get a lot more bizarre before it came to any sort of an end. He was dreading it, that final confrontation with his former friend.

Deep down, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to put an end to Bucky if he actually had to. And that thought made him angry.

* * *

"So, are you gonna sulk and pout all night?" Bucky asked as he filled the doorway to her room. She scowled at him and ignored him, staying silent, staying out of his reach. He sighed and said quietly, "When I figure something out.. I'm gonna let you call her. Just her."

She rolled her eyes, still angry and annoyed with herself for reacting to him the way she had earlier, when she'd tried to make one last frantic mad dash for it and get away, and he'd pinned her back down on the couch. The thought that she couldn't control this urge where bad guys were concerned really made her disgusted with herself. And it was the reason she never actually dated, or never got very involved in a relationship.

Sooner or later, the bad side always came out. She always wound up hurt and the whole process, really, was getting a bit redundant. She raked the brush through her hair, bit down on her lip, keeping quiet. He walked over, standing behind her as she brushed her hair, looking at the two of them together in the mirror. "You kinda remind me of an old girlfriend. Never noticed it before." he remarked carelessly, as he thought to himself, _'Yeah Barnes.. Not just any old girlfriend either, the one that got away. You went off to war, all this happened and she moved on. And you really did love her.'_

"Doubtful." Natalie finally spoke, looking at him as he stood behind her, the way he was looking at her. She raised a brow and then asked "What?"

"What's so hard to believe about that?" he asked as she shrugged quietly, kept on brushing her hair, doing her very best not to get closer to him, or at least any closer than she already had by now. Because apparently, the closer she let him in, the more 'attached' she'd be to him. And she was going to get out of this situation, one way or another.

He stood there, watching her, confused, trying to figure out what she was thinking, and he realized that he actually couldn't. "So you're gonna keep ignoring me, huh?" he asked as she nodded, gave him a thumbs up and then said quietly, "You could just let me go."

"Not an option. This isn't some little game, Blondie."

"My name is Natalya Vernon Romanov. Not Blondie, not doll, not any of these other nicknames you keep calling me." Natalie said as he looked at her and asked "Why's it say Natalie Vernon on your license?"

"What the hell were you doing going through my stuff?" she asked as she scowled at him, an angry glare in her eyes. He shrugged and said quietly, "Wanted to see if you had any Hydra or Shield credentials." as he sat down on the edge of the small bed in the room, looked at his hands. She sighed and said quietly, "My parents divorced. My mom.. She was messed up, a little crazy or something.. She knew my father had 'bad friends' or so she claimed, so she dropped my given last name, changed my name to Natalie. Didn't matter, wasn't like Dad cared enough to come after me, or even call on my birthday. Or Tasha, for that matter." Natalie said as he looked at her, brow raised.

"What?" she asked as he said quietly, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, I got over it a long time ago." Natalie stated quietly, looking at him as she asked "The girl.. What was her name?" and watched as for a few moments, an almost human like smile filled his face and he said quietly, "Veronica."

She nodded and said quietly, "Sorry.. I mean about losing her. My grandparents got seperated during the war.. Almost never found one another again. Luckily, they did." as she held his gaze intently, bit her lower lip, twisting a strand of hair around her fingertips. He nodded and said quietly, "It happened a lot. Some guys left a girl behind and came back, she was married, moved on with her life. The war tore a lot of people apart."

She studied him a moment, battling the urge to walk over, sit next to him and pull him into an embrace. She scowled at herself and then for the millionth time she reminded herself _'He is the bad guy. He took you captive. And if he has to, he'll put you in danger just to make sure he comes out okay. The guy he used to be is gone. Sure you might see shades of that guy now and then, but that doesn't mean he's not s till a Hydra created killing machine. Do not fall for this guy, he is the enemy. And sooner or later, your sister and her team will show up to save you. Hopefully.'_

In the back of her mind, she was beginning to have her nagging doubts about that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. Still not sure if I'm gonna pair my original character with Bucky or Steve yet. But I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 04

He woke up to the sound of oldies playing, the smell of food cooking. And it didn't smell half bad. It made his stomach rumble and remind him that he hadn't eaten an honest to God home cooked meal in a really, really long time.

Just as La Bamba started to play, he slid out of the bed, grumbling and wondering to himself why he couldn't have picked a quieter captive, one of those librarian type dames or something.

He stepped out of the bedroom and from the spot in the hall, he could see her sort of dancing around the kitchen while she cooked what appeared to be several things at once.

For a split second, he found himself wondering if his life might have been like this, had he not went off to war and let Veronica get away from him without telling her he loved her, she was the one girl he wanted to spend his life with, his subconscious reminded him bitterly, _'Yeah, and if you really gotta ask yourself, Bucky, why you grabbed Blondie that night.. You're a lot stupider than anybody on the planet. And you're really an idiot if you think this is gonna end any other way than bad for you. Steve woulda gotten a kick out of her though, he really liked Veronica before you stepped in and swept her off her feet...' _

She felt eyes trained on her body and she stopped doing stupid idiotic things (dancing around the kitchen while she made food for herself to eat) long enough to look up and see him lurking in the doorway that lead from the living area to the smaller kitchen.

"What?"

"Didn't know you cooked, Blondie." Bucky remarked smugly, stepping into the room to sit down at the table only after pouring himself a cup of something he thought was coffee.

He spat it out about ten seconds later when he realized that not only was it cold, it was apparently not coffee. It was sweet tea or something, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Oh haha. It's better than whatever you made the past two nights.. Spaghettios?" she remarked sarcastically as he looked at her and shrugged casually then pointed out, "Lucky I don't lock ya out in that shed behind this place. Most people who actually take someone captive don't actually treat them as decently as I've treated you.. Especially not when they're possibly the sister of the enemy side."

She nodded quietly, thought about what he said. He made a good point, even when she'd tried escaping at least 4 times by now, he hadn't treated her like some slave or something, or tried to hurt her. And he had a thousand chances by now to have done that very thing.

"Took a cooking course in high school, back before they cut stuff like Home Ec out for good." Natalie muttered as she avoided his gaze, the way his eyes lingered slowly on her body, asked mostly to change the subject, "It hot in here to you?"

All she got was a shrug, him muttering something under his breath again. He averted his gaze, biting his lower lip as he asked her calmly, " Do you ever actually wear shoes?"

She shook her head and said with a shrug, "Not indoors." as she fixed herself a full plate, grabbed a glass of orange juice and sat down at the opposite end of the table, picking at her food.

He watched her, took a few long breaths and then remarked, "It's not bad." as he shoveled the food into his mouth then asked "So.. Do ya dance around by yourself all the time?"

"Dancing takes my mind off of things. Current situation included." Natalie said as she looked up and bit her lower lip, asked him "What's with all the questions today? Usually when I try to ask you more than two at a time, you get grouchy and walk out of the room."

He shrugged. He didn't know why he kept trying to ask her personal stuff, really, she just made him curious. And he figured that if he were going to be stuck with her until he figured out his next move, he could at least get to know her. Even as he tried to convince himself of this, his mind was arguing the opposite, arguing _'Sure, Bucky.. Sure it's just that. You feel __**nothing**__ for her.. Go on, man, try to tell that crap to somebody else. If you let her close to you, you put her in worse danger, and you'll only mess it up in the long run. You really think she'd go on the run with you, Bucky, if by chance you do make it out of this?'_

"Just curious." he lied casually as he looked at her and then said quietly, "We're gonna go into town today. Gotta get some things to make blending in easier, some more food."

"Maybe I can call my sister?" she asked, hopefully, which as usual, only got met with his standard laugh, the shake of his head as he said quietly, "Nope. Told ya, Blondie. I've gotta figure things out first."

Truthfully, he didn't want to just hand her over to anybody, not until he was damn sure she'd be okay.

The only person he even partially trusted was Steve, but he didn't want to have to hurt his former friend if Steve did what he'd done the night before all this actually happened and come after him, intent on doing something to hurt him, or even killing him, first.

"Soon though." he said as he took a long sip of the tea in the cup in front of him and said "Gotta admit though.. Probably the worst tea I've ever drank, doll."

Natalie glared at him and then said calmly, "Probably, Bucky, because I normally don't do the whole domesticated thing."

"Kinda figured that." he remarked with a smirk as he stood and walked hurriedly out of the room, away from the temptation and distraction that were Natalie.

If she had any idea what she actually **did to him**, having to be around her so damn much...

–

* * *

Natasha woke up from a strange dream and rolling over, she grumbled and swore when she realized that it was 9 am and as usual, Steve was awake, he'd already been awake for hours, sitting in front of her black and red laptop, obviously having a voice conference with what appeared to be Tony Stark.

Whatever was being said was angry, at least on Steve's end. That's usually what happened though, she thought to herself, when Steve Rogers and Tony Stark were in a room together, unsupervised, for more than ten minutes. She cleared her throat as she moved to stand in the doorway, Tony greeting her, asking the same questions that Fury had when she'd went to him with her problem a week or two before.

"I got a threat, Stark. And she is my baby sister, I don't take threats towards my family, either of them, lightly." Natasha said as she scowled at Tony who said "Either way, those coordinates you found at Winter's hideout are to some cabin out in the middle of nowhere."

"In New York?"

"Nope.. In Indiana." Tony said as he asked Steve, "What is it with you and this guy?"

"It's none of your business, Stark." Steve grumbled as Tony glared a moment and then said "This guy is part of Hydra, which we work against, so yes, Capsicle, I'd say that makes it very much my business."

"Forget I asked for help." Steve started as Natasha cut him off and said calmly, "Can you two knock it off for at least a few minutes? Maybe he needs to be involved, Steve. We all are a team."

"Yes, I realize this, but.." Steve started as he said "Fine. But only because this could start to happen to everyone else."

"Already has, actually." Tony said as he leaned in and whispered "I've been getting threats too.. Against Pepper? Yeah. So.. We're not bringing Fury in."

"We already had to." Steve admitted as Tony mulled it over and then said calmly, "If he tries any of this keeping things hidden crap again, I'm out. I'm done. I don't have to work for the guy, and I really hate it when he hides things because usually, when he's hiding something, that's about when the shit hits the fan for all of us. Did we learn nothing from Manhattan?"

"He's got the same problem with us right now.. Shield, Tin Can, was compromised. After he put all that work into keeping it going. Hydra was playing it from the inside. Or have you just been ignoring the news again?" Steve said through gritted teeth and said "Everyone just needs to find somewhere, meet up and talk about everything that's happened, face to face, man to man."

"Good idea, Capsicle."

"I know, Tin can. Kind of why I suggested it." Steve said calmly as he and Tony glared at each other for a moment, the screen on the computer going dark, hinting that Tony had signed off.

–

* * *

The scientist grumbled as a sector leader for Hydra filled his doorway. "Can you find him?"

"The chip in his mechanical arm, sir, it's been scrambled. By a Shield device." the scientist admitted meekly as the sector leader growled and crushed a soda can, flinging it at the scientist's head. "You have 24 hours, Dr. Vance. If you haven't found them in 24 hours, consider yourself dead."

The scientist gulped and the door shut, cloaking the office in darkness once again as the sector leader went down the hallway, grumbling to himself in anger, pushing open another office at the end of the hallway.

"We need more time, sir.."

"Nonsense! Get me Winter Soldier and get him here now! What's so impossible about that? Did we not make him?"

"But sir.."

"No buts soldier, if we made him then we're going to find him and bring him back here, exterminate him. If Shield's gotten hold of him..."

"Yes sir." the sector leader said quietly, stepping out of the office, grumbling as he walked out to take a smoke break.

How in the hell had Bucky gotten someone to scramble his chip? Who did he know in Shield? And what the hell was he up to, going rogue, defying a direct order? He'd been specifically programmed..

Was the programming starting to fail?

–

* * *

He stood in the doorway of the room she slept in, watching her do some kind of stretching that looked like a contortionist or a gymnast would do it, amazed at how someone so curvy and petite could actually move their body in that manner without breaking something or at the very least, getting stuck.

She felt eyes on her again and bit her lower lip, stopping in her yoga warrior pose, righting herself and turning to look at him. "What?"

"What the hell were you doing?" he asked as she said simply, "Yoga."

"And it doesn't hurt ya?" he asked as she laughed a minute then said "Wow.. They really did leave you asleep a long time, didn't they?" moving closer to the doorway where he stood, sitting on the floor by him as she looked up at him.

He pulled her off the floor and then said quietly, "Yeah. They did. Nothing makes any sense now, actually."

She laughed a little and looking up at him, gave him a shrug and said quietly, "Don't feel bad, James.. I was born in this time, unfortunately, and I hate it. Things are so complicated.. Like, I'm imagining they used to be way simpler..." which made him nod and admit "They did." as he found himself migrating closer to her, his eyes locked on her full pink lips.

She looked at him for a moment and then said quietly, " Gonna go shower." as she attempted ducking underneath his human arm, only to have him stop her, ask her with a sort of playful smirk, "Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Get nervous when somebody gets within touching distance?" he asked as she shrugged and said quietly, "I just do, okay? And I'd rather not talk about it."as she tried to leave the room again, only to find that now her feet weren't cooperating, they were frozen in a spot.

Their bodies brushed each other , her soft skin a shock to his tense and rigid muscular chest,and she bit her lower lip, dropped her eyes quickly. He tilted her chin up and then said quietly, " What about me scares you, Blondie?"

"It's not you, exactly, it's..." Natalie admitted, rambling nervously as she looked at him and felt her knees turning to Jello again, tried again to remind herself that he was NOT one of the good guys anymore.

And she was somebody he'd taken captive for whatever reason.

This whole bizarre attraction was just her fondness for bad guys surfacing yet again, that's all it had to be.

"It's what?"

"It's the way I feel around you, okay?" Natalie forced herself to answer before ducking under his arm and bolting into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behind her, sitting on the floor in front of it.

If he kept making this happen, if she kept letting herself be stupid enough to be tempted, she figured that she'd never be able to get out or get away from him.

And she really, really wanted to be safe again, to have her normal life back.

_'But admit it, Nattie.. You kinda want him too. If you could have it both ways, you know you'd have to at least give it a try.. Even if it backfired like every single other time you let yourself be dumb enough to fall for someone, only to be hurt by them almost as soon as you let them in.'_

He went back over her words and stood there, not sure what to do with what she said. This was already an awkward and tense enough situation, and he certainly didn't want to make things even more tense or awkward. _"__And you feel things for her too, you know it, Bucky. But you also know that it won't and shouldn't happen. Not since Hydra got their hooks in, made you into this machine man.. You'd never be capable of the normal, the kind of life that girl deserves."_

He punched a wall because if all this (or most of it) hadn't happened, he'd have a lot simpler things to worry about. He wouldn't know the infuriatingly attractive and tempting 23 year old girl he'd taken hostage to save her life, and he wouldn't actually be battling emotions, things left over from his old life, from the guy he used to be.

_'You want her. That's it, plain and simple, Bucky. It's lust. You haven't had a woman in god knows how long. This is not some bizarre love type relationship. Because Hydra took that from you.. They took all your emotions, they took your ability to even care about someone or something.'_

He walked down the hall to the bathroom and knocked on the door firmly, waiting. When she didn't answer, he got angry, figured that she was trying to escape again, and kicked the damn thing off the hinges. Instead of finding an empty room and a broken window, finding her gone for good, he found her sitting in a tub full of bubbles, earphones in, the mp3 player she kept in her pocket and listened to music on, docked nearby. His eyes roamed over the skin not hidden completely by peach scented bubbles, and he groaned to himself, bit his lip and shifted his stance to try and ease off the knee jerk reaction his body was having at seeing her like that, almost totally exposed.

Natalie felt his intense gaze on her and looked up, shrieking "What the fuck? I'm kinda bathing here." as she scrambled for pretty much anything to cover herself up. He shrugged and said "Seen it all before, Blondie, it's not gonna bother me. Part robot, remember?" as he grumbled to himself, knowing full well that he was telling a huge lie currently, that she** DID** have an effect on him, and that if he couldn't get his shit together and fight it, then he'd never make it through this without compromising everything and putting her in worse risk.

"Would you stop popping into rooms like that? It's kind of annoying." she snapped, her stomach feeling like there was hot lava sitting in the pit of it as she locked eyes with him, held the towel closed over her as best as she could. _'Damn it, it's the way he watches you, the way he looks at you. It's his body and that smirk and god damn it, it's those eyes, his lips. This is __**not **__love, Nattie, this is called you're horny. There is a difference. And the fear, confusion, anger and everything else are just all coming together and mixing, they're trying to make you t__**hink**__ you love the guy. When all you want is your own wants satisfied. You wanna finally NOT be the good girl anymore. You want him, girl, that's it.'_

"What you said.. What'd you mean?" he asked as she looked at him, then her hands, then the floor and her feet and said quietly, "I don't know, okay? I just know that in light of this situation? It's not normal." while drying off, keeping her body covered mostly in her own shyness, her own awkwardness.

He watched her, confused.

And he'd only thought women were confusing in his old life.

Apparently, now, they were twice as confusing. And getting one to actually tell you what the hell was going on in her head was almost like getting a tooth pulled, or pulling one.


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-**

**I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 05

"You're not cutting my hair. Nope, Blondie, not gonna happen." Bucky said firmly as the curvy blonde made her way closer, brandishing scissors, an intent look in her eyes as she said quietly, "If you want to stay hidden, James Buchanan Barnes, you're going to shut the hell up, sit down and let this happen. It's bad enough there's not much in the way of hiding that arm. The hair is only going to give anybody with eyes, ears and a functioning brain all they need to positively id you as the Winter Soldier."

"Thought you were hell bent on ditchin me, huh?" he muttered, his green eyes locking on her eyes, holding her gaze intently as she licked her lips and stammered, started to say something. "I am. But I'm not going to leave you vulnerable. So shut the hell up, sit down, let's get this over with."

He eyed her as she gently placed her hand on his chest, right over his heart, shoved him back into a ladder back chair at the kitchen table, biting her lower lip as she bent slightly and began chopping away at his hair, fully focused on her task.

"Still don't see how a haircut's gonna change me, doll." Bucky muttered quietly as she looked at him and said in a quiet voice "It won't. But this way, Hydra won't make a positive id or something.. Look, go with this, okay? I'm not like, a superspy or something. If you wanted an expert you clearly should've grabbed my sister and not me." as she stopped to look at him a moment.

He chuckled a moment and then said with a shrug, "Good point." falling silent, watching her, trying to think about baseball, anything other than how it felt, the way she was sitting just on the edge of his lap to cut his hair. Their eyes met and she dropped her gaze quickly, as usual. He bit his lip in thought and then asked her quietly, "You okay?"

"Just thinking." Natalie said as he looked at her and asked "About?"

"_Oh nothing but how I'm not fucking important enough to anyone to be saved. How I might as well just give in to everything, forget my sister ever coming for me. How your cologne smells soooo fucking yummy and how amazing it feels when your skin brushes against mine. How being on the run with you for this long has been the scariest, most adventurous thing I've ever done in my entire life and about how I probably won't ever forget you when this is all finally over.. How I sort of don't want parts of it to be over.. Take your pick, James Barnes." _she thought to herself before finally answering "Nothing.. It's really not important. Let's just focus on me not gapping up your hair, okay?" in a slightly testy tone of voice as she looked at him, eyed him for a few intense and long silent moments.

"Yeah, good idea." Bucky said calmly as he looked at her a few more moments and thought to himself _'She doesn't look like she was thinking about nothing. Looks like she had a lot on her mind right now. And naturally, I'm not makin it any easier, not letting her go, not letting her at least call her sister to let her know she's alive. A call wouldn't hurt.. Right?'_

He dismissed the thoughts quickly and then coughed as she shifted a little on the edge of his lap, moving to stand and work on the back of his hair. "Your hair.. It looks nice." he admitted as she gave him a raised brow and then said quietly, "Thanks. I've always wanted to give myself bangs and go lighter blonde, just never had the courage or a good excuse." while holding his gaze a moment before moving to stand behind him, humming to herself as she worked on cutting away the long matted hair.

"You're probably gonna want your old look.. Right?" she asked as he gave her a thumbs up and then said "So.. Planning a big escape or something?"

She froze a moment, then shook her head and quietly said "No. No, I don't think so, actually." while shrugging. He turned to look at her, brow raised as he asked "Why?"

"I'm just not, okay? Why bother? You either catch me, or I'd be going back to.." falling silent as she bit her lip and put down the scissors, having finished his haircut, picking up a silver handled hand mirror, holding it out to him.

"Not bad." he managed a smile as he looked at her and then asked "You'd be going back to what?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." Natalie muttered as she said " Besides, it's not really your business." and held his gaze firmly.

"Besides, you said you'd let me call my sister when it was safe. I trust you.. Or something." Natalie added a few moments later, before turning to walk out of the room. He stood behind her, stopping her in the doorway, asked her quietly, "Where are you going?"

"To my room."

"Ya don't have to."

"Oh yes, James, yes I do." Natalie muttered as she bit her lower lip, felt his hand resting on her hip for a few moments. She turned and found herself chin to chest with him and gulped, biting her lower lip as she looked up at him.

There was that damn look in those damn gorgeous eyes of his again. The only thing missing from this sappy moment, she mused to herself, was the love song from Top Gun or one of those other equally sappy and really cliché movies she loved so much playing in the background.

No guy had ever actually looked at her like that before, but she reminded herself mentally, _'It's only because your time is so much different from the one he came from, the one he's used to. It's not because he wants you or you're beautiful, or anything, he's just curious and probably a good 70 plus years horny.' _before making herself walk out of the room, get away from him on very, very shaky legs.

–

Baron Von Strucker paced the base, arms crossed, intent scowl as he stared at the intel gathered on his screen and wondered aloud just how one of their weapons had managed to elude capture for nearly 3 weeks by now. It was as if Bucky Barnes, aka their Winter Soldier, had dropped off the face of the Earth.

They knew he wasn't dead, of course, because Bucky made one very stupid mistake and came out of hiding while some Hydra agents were about to attempt an assassination of the Avenger agent Black Widow. During that time, he'd managed to take the younger sister of Black Widow hostage, but since that night, he hadn't been seen nor heard from. Von Strucker was furious, to say the least. Was their weapon defecting?

And just what would happen if the serum and the electroshock wore off?

"Find him now." Von Strucker growled impatiently at a nearby agent who nodded and gulping ran from the room, down the hall to the scientist's lab.

–

"We've been looking for him for 3 weeks, Fury. Why haven't we managed to find him? Are you even doing anything? She's my little sister, damn it, Fury. And she's being held hostage by a madman." Natasha fumed, lightly punching a wall as Fury reminded her solemnly "She wouldn't be in captivity, Natasha, if you hadn't called her and met up with her. I'm doing what I can. This man's good at disappearing, you of all people should know that."

She nodded, bit her lower lip and Steve spoke up, stated matter of factly, "We'll get him. Sooner or later, he'll mess up again. He can't hide forever."

"You don't know that, Steve. Hydra could've assigned him the job of grabbing her. She hasn't called... I'm starting to wonder if she's even alive anymore."

"If she weren't, we'd know it. And I think, Ms. Romanov, that Hydra is as baffled as we are currently, as to where he might have gone. The cabin in Indiana was deserted, it looked as if nobody had been there in years. So he obviously left that so called clue to buy himself more time. And we know his operating chip was taken out, the field agents found that in his old apartment here in New York. He's good at manipulating things. Better than we originally thought, apparently."

"All that means nothing. It still makes no sense.. Why take my sister? She had nothing to do with this part of my life, not until that night.. And I wouldn't have contacted her if I hadn't thought she was in danger and I was the only person who could keep her safe. You all heard the voicemail. And since then, Hydra's been making veiled threats, attempting to take anyone else connected with us, with the remaining loyal agents." Natasha paced as she stated all of that as calmly as she could.

"Would you sit?" Tony Stark asked as Natasha glared at him. He gave her a solemn look and then reminded her, "In case you have forgotten ,we're all in the same boat right now.. Well, all of us but Capsicle and the angry green giant, they don't have families or people they want kept safe." Natasha glared at Tony and throwing her hands up in the air pointed out in exasperation "And as usual, Stark, you make this all about you."

"Calm down." Fury said as Tony looked at him and rubbed his chin then asked "She does pose a valid question.. what in the hell are your guys doing about all of this? I mean call me crazy, but I seem to remember you swearing we were all 'safe' that we were all 'untouchable', and what do you know.. Hydra's been right under our noses the entire damn time."

Eyes turned to Fury who said calmly, " All of you knew the risks."

"Not all of the risks, because as usual, Fury didn't tell us the entire story." Banner grumbled as Steve nodded and said quietly " He did what he had to do this time, Tin Can."

"Stay out of this, Capsicle."

Dr. Banner spoke up and said solemnly, "I'm working on a tracking algorithm, Natasha. Maybe that'll turn something up. With all the government red tape since the end of the trial, it's really a wonder we have any agents left employed."

Fury nodded and then said calmly to the room, "We're going to find them all, flush them all out. I have a few plans.. But first, we need to get the hostage away from Winter Soldier."

"Finally, he's going to get off of his ass and do something about my sister being a hostage." Natasha grumbled to herself in the Russian she spoke fluently, before turning on her heels, s torming out of the room. Steve stood up and walked out behind her, catching up to her easily.

"You okay?"

"Not really, no. I was trying to keep my sister out of this shit. Now she's right in the middle of it. I mean I stayed with Dad when we were kids because I knew to some degree what he was.. I knew what he did, how dangerous his life was. I didn't want Natalie in that. Our mom wasn't much better.. I just wish sometimes, Steve, that I'd taken my sister, cut my losses and ran instead of getting sucked into my dad's line of work."

Steve studied her carefully and then nodded, said quietly, "Hey.. You were doing what you thought was best. You didn't know your mom was going to expose your sister to everything she did."

Natasha stared out across the deck they stood on then said quietly, "She thought I hated her though.. I never actually got the chance to tell her I didn't."

–

Natalie sat up in bed, gasping for air, her hand over her heart as it beat like it were going to leap right out of her chest and run away. She scowled when she realized that she'd been having a nightmare, and she blushed all over when the light came on in her room and Bucky stood in the doorway, looking at her, a puzzled smirk on his face as he raked his hand through sleep mussed short hair.

"You alright Blondie?"

"I'm good.. I just.. I have bad dreams."

"About?"

"I've always had them, James."

"Stop callin me that. James is dead, remember?" Bucky insisted, a bitter tone to his voice as he snapped. She looked at him with a raised brow and then asked "What do I call you then?"

"Bucky."

"Nope, not gonna happen." Natalie said as she looked at him for a few moments and then said weakly, "I'm fine, I just.. You can go back to sleep, really. I'll be okay."

He studied her a moment. Every since earlier in the day, after the moment they had when she'd been cutting his hair, she'd been walking on eggshells around him, and avoiding him twice as much as she had been before. He walked across the room slowly, sat down on the edge of the bed and said quietly, "I get 'em too. I got 'em then, I get 'em twice as bad now."

She looked at him, perplexed as to why he wasn't just walking out. She'd told him she was fine, she'd tried everything to reassure him of that very thing. She knew if she spent too much time around him, she'd wind up giving in to her urges where he was concerned.

And she was beginning to be unsure as to whether that was a good or a bad thing. She moved closer to him, cautiously, carefully keeping the blanket wrapped around herself as she did so. He snickered and then shook his head and she glared at him and asked pointedly, "What's so damn funny?"

"Not like I didn't see ya when I had to sew you up the night I grabbed you." he mused as she looked at him and said with a shrug "You didn't see much then, huh?" while dropping her gaze to her neon pink painted toenails, noting how they stuck out against the starkness of the white bed sheets and the heavy gray comforter.

"Depends on who you ask." Bucky said as he choked a moment then looked at her and thought to himself _'Hell with it. Worst that will happen if I kiss her is she'll deck me. Won't be the first time that's happened to me either. I'm just too damn tired of having this robotic iron clad willpower, damn it. And she's probably the least confusing thing about my whole situation.'_

He leaned in and gripped the back of her neck, his fingers on the human hand tangling in her hair as he pulled her to him, started to kiss her, sucking and nibbling at her full lower lip. She gasped, because it shocked her and most definitely caught her off guard, and her eyelids fluttered open, she looked at him with a shocked expression on her face and he shrugged.

_'Okay, now that was not what I was expecting. The hell did he do that for, even? I mean I wanted it but... Okay, if I wanted it, why not kiss back?' _she thought to herself before counter arguing mentally, _**'because, Nattie, you fucking idiot, he's the bad guy. He is holding you hostage.. you do not kiss the man who's holding you hostage.. nor do you fantasize about him. In what fucking world, in what normal plane of reasoning, Nattie, do you fall for the guy who's holding you hostage and at any second could kill you?'**_

She muttered something and moved to sit on his lap, pressing her body against his as she looked at him for a moment as if working up her nerve, licking her lips. Then she leaned in and laced her hands together across the back of his neck, pulling him into a much deeper kiss than he'd pulled her into to begin with, and groaning she muttered as the kiss broke, "Why in the hell do you do that? How do you do that to me?"

"What?"

"You confuse me." Natalie admitted nervously as he looked at her with his brow raised and said "And you annoy me most of the time."

"Not on purpose."

"Yeah? Well trust me, Blondie, the stuff you do to me is annoying as hell when I can't get you out of my head." Bucky said as he held her in place on his lap, preventing her from moving back, getting away by putting his hands on her lower back, gripping as tightly as he could.

"This is not supposed to happen.. It's not.. It's not normal, damn it. You're holding me hostage.. I'm not supposed to be having all these curiousities about you, I'm supposed to be scared to death." as she turned facing away from him in an attempt to get up. His hands gripped her lower back tightly and she bit her lower lip, wondering yet again _'In what fucking world is this normal? That wasn't supposed to feel right or good. Or exciting.. And it felt like all three things.'_

"Maybe it's because you realize I'm not the worst of the bad guys?" he wondered as his lips brushed the back of her neck. She shivered and turned to look at him for a moment. If she really thought about it, could she honestly say he was a bad guy? He'd saved her life.

He hadn't hurt her, even after 4 escape attempts.

He smirked and then leaned in, added in a smug whisper, "Besides, Blondie.. You don't have to lie.. I know ya kind of liked it."

She didn't answer, just sat there stunned by herself, this situation, and everything else she'd been through in the course of almost 3 weeks.


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-**

**I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 06

–

The men surrounded the cabin, communicating via hand signals with each other against the cover of a heavily wooded area and the darkness of a night sky, the moon their only light. They'd finally managed to nail down a location on their defective weapon thanks to a backup tracking chip that Bucky didn't even know being activated.

"We take him alive. The boss wants him back at the base, alive." the leader of the mission hissed as the other men nodded, one of them asking, "And the girl?"

"Hell, kill her as far as I'm concerned. She's of no use to us, she was a civillian, didn't even know her sister was a government operative. She'd be a liability if she were left alive."

"Good point, boss."

"That's why I'm the commander." the man said as the operatives fell into place, waiting on just the right moment to strike, take Winter Soldier and do away with the female hostage so she didn't go blabbing to anybody about where she'd been, who'd had her.

The last thing Hydra needed right now, was anymore bad press. At least not until the Baron was absolutely sure he was ready to strike again.

There were certain things that had to be acquired before this could happen, and negotiations on those things were at a standstill currently.

It was difficult negotiating with the god of mischief. Now that the man knew what his scepter was capable of, he wasn't just going to hand it off to just anybody.

And currently, Loki was being held in prison on the planet Asgard.

Which, in laymans terms meant, that unless they managed some kind of technological and scientific miracle, and got themselves to Asgard, for now, the scepter was going to remain hidden. But they were close, to some degree.

Closer than they had been during previous attempts to acquire the things needed for an all out uprising.

Then this fiasco with one of their best weapons. If Winter were compromised, there was no telling just how far behind their plans would fall.

But of course, they had countless thousands upon thousands of backup plans, this mess with Winter was just a loose end that needed to be tied up.

–

She kept hearing movement in the woods through her slightly opened window. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and slid quietly out of bed, peering down. She saw nothing, of course.

She'd been just about to get back into bed, but her bedroom door flew open and Bucky grabbed her, the two of them landing on the floor, he slid them under the bed.

"There's somebody out there."

"I didn't see anybody.." Natalie started, concerned about him for a moment. He looked at her and said quietly, "And you're not gonna, either. Not until it's too late. That's how those bastards get an advantage. Just trust me, okay? Stay down." in a firm and almost pleading tone of voice. She looked at him a moment and then said quietly, "Fine. But you don't go do anything stupid."

"I'm already in this, like it or not. But I don't have to let you get hurt too." Bucky said firmly as she gave him a dirty look and said quietly, "Yeah, well.." before falling silent, her mind once again reminding her just how not normal this entire situation was, just how bizarre it was.

"I'm gonna go to the gun room." Bucky said as he went to stand, crouched low, sticking to the walls to cover himself. "That cannot be a good idea." Natalie said as she looked at him, pleading with her eyes. The window shattered and glass flew out of the frame, the fragments and slivers making the floor shimmer and shine in the moonlight.

"Get back over here."

"Stay put, Blondie." he ordered before disappearing from the room. Once in the hallway, he hurried down to the area behind the fireplace, pulling the hidden entrance mechanism, grabbing as much as he could carry. He had a gun in his arm, but he knew that they knew that.

He closed the door to the gun room just as he heard her screaming up the hallway...

–

"You've got a pretty girl here, Winter." one of the black clad agents said as he held Natalie against him, a syringe in his hand, the man beside him pressing a knife into the other side of her throat from behind. Natalie growled and said "Eat shit and die. I'm expendable to him. Whatever you're gonna do to me, it won't matter to anybody."

Bucky eyed her with a raised brow and then said quietly, "She's right. Killin her isn't gonna stop me. But you idiots knew that already, you created me."

Natalie's stomach churned as she heard him say what he'd just said. She looked at him, then down at her feet, the numbness kicking in. She was truly going to have to save herself from all of this. Before now, she'd held out a little hope.

Now she knew.. Nobody gave a damn, really.

Not her sister, not her family, not this guy who'd kissed her with so much passion and intensity last night.. She mattered to absolutely nobody.

"You came for me."

"You had to know we'd find you, Winter. We didn't realize we'd also find a bargaining chip too. With the girl and the other hostages we intend to take, we'll have SHIELD on their knees. So you did good, soldier. It's a shame we're gonna have to kill her and the rest of the hostages."

He bit his cheek as he looked at them, trying to stay neutral, trying not to appear as if it bothered him either way. "If I come in with you.."

"You might live."

Natalie looked at him and he mouthed something to her, she couldn't understand it, but when two of the men holding her dropped to the ground, she realized what he'd been trying to tell her. She gaped at him a moment before passing out as a needle lodged in her neck and someone behind her laughed.

Gunshots rang out one last time as the man who'd laughed after lodging the needle into Natalie's neck hit the floor in a broken heap and Bucky walked over, pulling the man halfway up by the collar. "What the hell did you inject her with?"

"It was..." the man gasped with blood bubbles coming from his mouth as he wheezed and then said "Sedative."

He knew they didn't have much time, and he also knew that she'd be out for at least 4 hours. They'd given him the same sedative shot once, he remembered it all now. He'd been in a zombie like state for a while.

After making sure he killed all of the Hydra operatives sent after him, he picked her up, carried her down the hall to the small room she'd been sleeping in, laying her on the bed carefully.

Then he started pacing back and forth as he tried ot figure out their next move. He still didn't think turning her over to SHIELD was a good idea, because he wasn't entirely sure if SHIELD sent HYDRA men after him, or if HYDRA were acting alone.

–

She woke up with the second worst headache in her adult life, and winced as she realized that she was in a moving vehicle. She looked over at him and he said quietly, "You're awake."

"Where the hell are we going?"

"We have to find a new place."

"Just let me out. You can find a new hiding place."

"You're safer with me."

"How the hell am I when I just almost got killed.. And then there's the night I actually met you.."

"Technically, Blondie, that wasn't my fault. Maybe you just have really crappy timing."

The conversation in the car came to a halt after that, she went back to staring out the window, watching the scenery as it flew by. This went on for about an hour, then he stopped at some little hole in the wall gas station in an even smaller town.

"Back there.. I was trying to make him drop ya."

"I'm not an idiot, James. You meant it. And I knew that. I know that now, I mean.. It just hurt or something." she said quietly as she looked at her toenails, sighed quietly.

"You don't know what I mean and what I don't, Blondie. You're not in my head. Got it?" he said gruffly before starting the car, handing her a twenty.

"And you think I'm not gonna run?"

"You might.. But you won't make it far." Bucky said confidently as she glared at him a moment, got out and walked into the gas station, leaving him to his own thoughts.

She got back into the car and the rest of the ride to their new safehouse was a deathly quiet one.

It didn't bother him that much, actually. He didn't know what he might say, if he were to talk, to try and make her see that he hadn't meant anything he told the Hydra guy who'd grabbed her.

It made him highly uncomfortable, the things she had him feeling, the feelings, the other side of him she'd awakened these past weeks.


	7. Chapter 7

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-**

**I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 07

She'd fallen asleep again, in the car, on the way to this new safehouse. The car came to a stop just behind the house and quickly Bucky got out, walked around and grabbed her out of the passenger seat, carrying her in his arms up the stairs. It was just beginning to get dark, and they'd driven 3 days so he was pretty much exhausted at this point.

And confused, very confused. If he'd thought her avoiding him was problematic before, if he'd thought she was skiddish and distant before, then whatever happened during the standoff at the other hideout they'd left behind a few days ago only proved to worsen that skittishness and distant vibe he got from her. Fumbling with the lock on the door, -which was a harder task than normal because holding her like he was really did a number on him- he finally got the key into the lock and kicked the door open quietly with his foot.

"We're home." he joked, though it was dry, humorless, as he sat her down on a couch, let her sit up and stretch, look around. She rubbed her eyes and stood, stretching, rubbing her neck. He chuckled and said "Sore neck?"

"Little bit." she muttered as she walked around the small mid century house nestled in the middle of 'retro' suburbia. "Wow.. Did you drive through a time warp too?" she asked, her voice trailing off as she bit her lower lip and fell silent, managed to mutter "Sorry.. I keep forgetting.. I mean it's nice. I always wanted to live in a little neighborhood like this.. My mom.. She actually moved us to one once, it was in Anaheim.. Nevermind.. You probably don't care or wanna hear about it." she muttered before falling silent again, staring out the window.

He stood in the arch that seperated the living area from a short hallway that held 2 bedrooms and one bathroom, watched her quietly. She seemed to just fit here, which in itself was odd. "Bedrooms and the bathroom are down that hall. I'm gonna go out and check the outside of the house." he said quietly, turning on his heel and making a hasty retreat out the door, through the gate that lead to a small backyard, a patio and a pool.

Okay, so he actually owned this house, or he would've, had he actually been able to be James Barnes, had he not been turned to a monster by Hydra. But he'd managed to get his hands on all the paperwork to make the small house they stayed in this time his own house. Which was taking a huge risk on his part, because he had to know that if Hydra had found him once, then chances were they'd probably found out about this house too and might be coming again soon. But something just snapped once he'd started driving and he'd sort of just migrated this way.

Because nobody would dare look for a Hydra operative that had escaped, with a hostage, in the middle of suburbia.. Right?

Especially not if he caught up with one of his old buddies, another Hydra defect that'd managed to make it out of the life a long time ago, and he got rid of the biggest thing that was keeping them from blending..

His arm.

Inside the house, Natalie sat on the seafoam colored sofa and leaned back, shutting her eyes, rubbing her head. She had a massive migraine, and the events of the past few weeks had no doubt taken their toll on her. She kept going back over the whole stand off from a few nights ago, and his kiss the night before that.

Something didn't quite make sense, she was missing something.

_'No, Nattie, you weren't missing something. He actually meant it.. God, did you really think he might want you? That's a fucking laugh if I've ever heard one. Guys like that only go for girls like your sister.. Or really, really hot supermodels. Not to mention, he's not exactly a good guy.' _her mind argued as her heart argued in response **'Hello, remember A Cinderella Story? Or what about Pretty Woman? An Officer And A Gentleman? All of those girls were nothings.. You're not exactly a nothing, Nattie. I mean granted, you're not drop dead gorgeous, but.. And if he didn't care, why the hell didn't he just let the Hydra men take you?'**

_'Because, you stupid girl, you're a bargaining chip. He just can't decide what he wants to bargain you off for. Which is a laugh, actually, because you and Tash weren't ever actually close thanks to your parents. So she's probably not even trying to find you. And every time you have tried to call the number she gave you for emergencies, Nattie.. He catches you. This guy might not be a bad guy, but he's not a saint either. Just because he used to be a freaking war hero.. Doesn't mean he's still a hero now.'_

**'_But you have to admit it. You feel sparks.. Something about him.. The way he looks at you, the way it felt when he kissed you..'_**

_'It's called horomones, Nattie, damn.'_

The clearing of his throat as the door to the house shut had her head shooting up, she looked at him a moment and then said quietly, "Think I'm gonna go shower."

He nodded, turned on a tv, found a news channel and tried to get involved in watching the news, baseball scores, anything. She slunk out of the room and the door to the bathroom shut and he sat there going over anything that might have happened to make her clam up all over again. He came up empty until he thought about what she said to the men who had her, and what he'd said.

"Damn it. Women." he muttered as he stood and walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge, digging around in it's contents. He had a buddy that lived around here, if he were going to be in the area and staying in the house, he normally got the guy to buy food.

He dug around and found a soda, popping the tab on the aluminum can, taking a sip as he leaned against the wall in the kitchen, trying to figure things out. _'There ain't no happy ending to this, Barnes.. There won't be an American flag flying from the carport, 2 kids playing under a waterhose in the front yard. If you keep her with you much longer and Hydra finds you again? She's as dead as you are. And that really, really bugs you.' _he thought to himself, biting his thumb as he added to that thought **_'What bugs you more, though, is she's in your head. you can't think of anyone or anything but her and it's driving you insane. You cannot lose focus. Because eventually, you know what's gonna happen.. And it's not likely she even feels the same way..'_**

_'If she didn't, genius, why the hell is she down there in the shower, why's she been like ice since the night of the standoff? What you said was taken the wrong way, and she thinks she's nothing to you, which is a lie. But if you try and make something happen, it's only gonna wind up going badly.' _

She wandered into the living room and sat down, the t shirt she wore stopping about mid thigh. She had a bright red nail polish bottle in her hands, and she propped her foot up on the edge of the table in front of the couch, started painting her nails. Every now and then she'd look up and steal glances at him through the curtain of damp blonde hair, and the last time she did, she nearly jumped back when she realized he'd moved and he was now sitting right beside her, watching her with a raised brow.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah. It was nice to get a hot shower. Hope whoever owns this house doesn't mind.. I borrowed some of the girl's clothes in the closet." Natalie admitted as she bit her lower lip, looked at him. He shrugged and said quietly, "Pretty sure it's not gonna matter, Blondie." leaving out the fact that he actually owned this house, and he'd actually gotten his 'connection' to pick up some things.

He figured she was p robably getting sick and tired of wearing the same clothes day in and day out. Most girls he'd known back in his old time hadn't ever been fond of wearing the same outfit for nearly 3 weeks, only washing it in laundromats between hideouts when they moved around. And they definitely would've raised more hell about not having makeup and hot showers, bubble baths and stuff.

The fact that she hadn't kind of intrigued him.

"What?" Natalie asked, noting that he was still staring at her intently, leaning in closer like he might kiss her again. She backed away a little and said quietly, "Just don't.. Please?" as she got back to work on painting her toes, putting all of her focus on that and not on how she'd almost went right to his lips, almost let herself climb into his lap..

This was getting far too complicated and now that she knew just where they stood as captor and captive, she wasn't sure if she liked it. She couldn't shut off the damn feelings for him either, and that really upset her. She always seemed to pick the guys that she 'couldn't have' for some reason or another. A shrink her mom sent her to a long time ago said that it was something about her knowing she couldn't have something or someone, knowing they were off limits, it made things easier for her because there was no real risk of her being hurt because she 'couldn't have them'.

If that made any sense. It hadn't to her then, it still didn't to her now.. Then again, her mom was screwing the guy, and she'd just gotten kicked out of a school for setting all the frogs in the science department free to keep them from being dissected. And then there were the fights with the other girls in the schools she went to, various other troubles.

"So we're back to this, huh?" he asked as he looked at her intently. She looked at him a moment and then said quietly, "Look.. I'm just a means to an end. I'd be an idiot to think anything else, right?" as she bit her full lower lip, looking up at him, her hair falling into her eye. He reached out, brushing her bangs back and away from her eyes as he said quietly, "Not sure how guys do this crap now.. But I don't just kiss girls for no damn reason. I mean I know that much about myself."

She looked at him a moment, thinking about what he said, and what he'd said that night. He shifted around in his seat, leaned in a little more and said quietly, "And you have to admit one thing, Blondie... You loved it."

She glared at him and said "My name is Natalya, not Blondie."

"Your name, Blondie, is whatever I wanna call you." Bucky said as he eyed her and then smirking said "But I am right. You did love it.. If you didn't.."

"What?" she asked, brow raised as he leaned in closer, wondering what he was about to do. He pulled her into another kiss and the human hand tangled in her damp hair as she groaned and tried to stiffen herself, back away, anything.. But she eventually couldn't fight it anymore and that's when he stopped the kiss to shrug and say "See? If you didn't like it, Blondie.. You definitely woulda slapped me then. I mean girls back in my old time, they wouldn't have let me get by with that first one."

She pouted, turning to look out the window, angry with her inability to resist her captor, her lips tingling with the force and intensity of the kiss he'd just basically stolen from her. He chuckled and then said quietly, " The guy had a needle to your neck. If he'd have thought killing you would hurt me, he'd have done it. I had to do something." before standing, walking out of the room, letting the door shut behind him.

She grumbled and sat there, thinking about what he just said to her. _'Guys will say anything Nattie.__ Now that he knows you can't resist him, he's gonna use that to control you, dumbass. Run now. What the hell are you still sitting here for?' _she thought to herself as she leaned back against the couch and palmed her forehead, looked up at the ceiling.

Bucky sat on the secluded back patio, cigarette pressed between his lips as he stared at a hibiscus plant and fumed. He'd practically spelled it out for her just now, but he somehow got the feeling that she was sitting in that damn house right now trying everything to convince herself that he was lying, that she was just some prize or something, that he was going to trade her for his life or whatever else he might want.

To begin with, yes, that had been his idea, very much so. And he'd made no attempt to hide that from her. But then he'd started to feel things towards her and now he..

The night they'd almost gotten away with her, he'd actually had a good 10 seconds of panic before his soldier's instincts and all the damn spy movies he and Steve used to watch in the theater as kids kicked in and he stole a play from one of the old spy movie stars play books and pulled the 'the girl means nothing to me' con.

Luckily, it'd worked. He just didn't want to think about how he might have felt had things not went down the way they had that night. He'd been just about to stand and go back inside after stubbing out his cigarette when he turned, found himself chest to chin with her. She looked up at him in curiousity, her hand in her long blonde hair, biting her lower lip nervously. "This is some kind of bizarre con."

"If it were a con, Blondie, I wouldn't waste the time." he said as he looked at her. She pouted a moment, sort of irritated that she hadn't called him out on anything.

"Why do you think everything's a con or a joke anyway?" he asked as he looked down at her, curious. She looked at him and with a small shrug she said quietly, "I had a really, really messed up childhood. It's kind of hard for me to believe anything unless I've proven it myself or I know it's true already." which made him nod and say quietly, "Yeah. Kinda feels that way to me too. Don't know what's real or not anymore."

She nodded and then asked "Do I smell smoke?"

"I'm a grown man."

"But that shit kills you." Natalie said as he looked at her and laughing said dryly, "Doubtful.. If it did, Blondie, really don't think I'd be sitting here right now. Steve though, he used to say the same thing." as he shook his head, slid his arms around her and propped his chin on her shoulder. "So... Heard all the swearing in there. Did you figure anything out?"

She grumbled and turned to look up at him, shrugged.

He grumbled and then said with a smirk "Going inside." before turning and walking into the house. She followed him in and said quietly, "So which were you lying about? I mean were you telling the Hydra guy that, or were you telling me that?"

"You said it, first of all.. I just went along with it. You're still standin here, so why's it matter?" he asked as he grabbed a soda from the fridge in the kitchen, held one out to her and asked "Wanna talk about something else?" which was his hint to her to drop it. She studied him quietly for a few moments and then took the soda he held out to her as she said quietly, "You confuse me."

"Ditto." he said as she leaned against him a little, looking up at him. She shook her head and he asked her with an amused laugh "Something wrong?'

"Freud would have a freaking field day with this one." she muttered as she took a sip of her soda and then said quietly, "So.. That's twice you've saved my ass."

He shrugged and sat his soda down on the counter and said quietly, "So it is.." as he looked at her. She held his gaze and then said quietly, "Thanks for that." as she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek then added in a much softer tone, "This isn't right. Like, I'm supposed to be scared to death of you."

"Are you?"

"Truth? Not really. I mean I am, but I'm not." Natalie said as she bit her lower lip and thought about everything they'd said and the things he hadn't said but he'd hinted at when they'd been outside. "Who's place is this anyway?"

"Truth?" Bucky asked as he looked at her and then said with a shrug, "It's mine.. I got a few places I can go that Hydra and SHIELD don't quite know about. Couldn't tell who to trust back then, it's even more difficult to do that now."

She bit her lower lip, tempted to ask him who the women's clothes in the closet were, but the surge of jealousy she felt at the answer she might get was more than enough to stop her. Instead she nodded and said "It's nice."

"It's a roof." he said as he shrugged and then reaching around her, he grabbed his soda from the counter, walked into the living room and sat down. Maybe when he'd dropped that hint a few moments ago, he'd sort of pushed her in the right direction as to how he really felt. Because he wasn't really good at saying the words. He never had been, even before the war, before all the experiments, before he 'died' and came back as a Hydra killing machine.

He seemed to do better with showing than telling.

The thunder and lightning crackled and flashed outside and she shrieked as the power flickered. He jumped up, ready to run into the kitchen but she raced to the living room, jumped over the back of the couch and said sheepishly, "I hate bad weather."

"So I noticed. Thought somebody mighta come in on you." he said as his eyes gave way momentary concern and worry. She noticed he looked at her oddly, but she kept it to herself. "Let's just watch tv?"

"Good idea." he said as she nodded and shuffled into place beside him, cautiously. The tv was turned on and fortunately for both of them, that momentarily killed the need to converse, to pick apart what might have just happened, what they both knew was happening between them. Because neither of them were really good at handling emotions, and this situation alone was enough to make someone certifiable.

Adding a potential romantic relationship to it was only going to make it blow up right in their faces sooner or later.. Or would it? Both of them were sort of too afraid to really find out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-**

**I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 08

"So you think they're hiding in plain sight? Like we did when we were helping Fury?" Natasha asked hopefully. If she were hiding in plain sight, like the team thought, it'd be a matter of time and Winter Soldier making a mistake and they'd get Natalie back. Natasha bit her lower lip thoughtfully and then asked "What about that last location he left you, Steve?"

"We went there and nobody was there. Nobody had been there. But I've been to the place a time or two before with Bucky. I think he's.. Nevermind, it's stupid. I have no clue what he's doing at this point, actually. Do you think he's remembering who he used to be? That maybe the locations aren't hiding places, but his way of trying to show me he's not Winter anymore?" Steve pondered for a moment, biting his thumb as he walked around the room, pacing. He'd been doing that a lot lately. It grated his nerves what Bucky was doing, it was almost like the former friend turned Hydra weapon was baiting him.

He didn't like being baited. He'd never responded well to it and he definitely wasn't now. What was the purpose of leaving Steve the locations he knew Steve would recognize from their time as friends, but not being there when Steve went to check them out in the hopes that maybe he was hiding there? He focused on the slip of paper they'd found at the last definite place that Bucky had taken Natalie and furrowed his brow, a slightly angry look on his face.

"Get a drink or something. You're not going to figure anything out, Capsicle, if you keep on like this." Tony Stark spoke up as he stared at a similar board with Pepper's picture on it. Two days ago, after a press conference in Washington, which she'd been doing to put the bad press where it belonged, on Hydra, someone had thrown a smoke bomb or two into the crowd and taken Pepper quietly and quickly in the middle of all the ensuing chaos.

And like with Natalie, there hadn't been a call yet.

"Back to you, Tin Can." Steve grumbled as he focused again and asked Natasha, "Your sister.. Do you think she'd escape him?"

"Doubtful, Steve. She's not like me.. She's.." Natasha trailed off as she looked at Steve and said quietly, "She's not geared to think like this. Until 4 weeks ago, her biggest worry was waking up late for class."

Steve nodded and then said "So that rules out her escaping him on her own." as Natasha nodded and pacing said "I just wish he'd let her call.. I mean he spared you.. That shows there's something human left.. Right? How do you even tell?"

"I don't know, Natasha." Steve said as he bit his lip and focused on the picture of Natalie on the board in front of him, smiling with a Guiness Dark in her fist, sitting with friends at the campus bar. She was a pretty enough girl, and he found himself thinking that he might have liked to meet her under different circumstances. "What'd you say she was majoring in?"

"She's got 3 majors, why?"

"Just trying to rule out every possible other reason Hydra might have sent him to grab her, if they even did to begin with.. As of now, I'm actually not sure about Hydra even authorizing him to grab her like Fury thought in the beginning." Steve admitted as he looked at Natasha who shrugged and heaved a sigh of near defeat.

"It's been 4 weeks now, and not a word from either, no demand for ransom, nothing. This just feels weird." Natasha said quietly as Steve nodded and said to Tony, "Has anyone called you about Pepper?"

Tony shook his head without tearing his eyes away from the board in front of him before remarking seconds later, "There's something about all this Steve. I feel like we're missing something huge."

"Me too." Steve admitted as he looked at Tony, wondering what he suspected.

-  
She'd just gotten out of the shower and nearly screamed when she caught sight of him standing in the mirror. "Jesus Christ, James, give me a heart attack." she said as she held her hand over her chest, clasped at the towel wrapped around her. He chuckled and didn't bother averting his eyes. They'd shared several kisses by now, he kind of figured the point in covering his eyes was a moot one, really, because he wanted her.

And he suspected, she wanted him. No matter how 'cool' she tried to play it, how neutral, the fact remained.. She had kissed him back. And she had enjoyed it.  
"Came to make sure you didn't try escaping again, Blondie." he said as he coughed and looked at her. She held his gaze a few moments and shrugging said calmly, "What's the point? I mean obviously, if my sister wanted to find me, seeing as how she's working for a goverment agency an all, she would, right? No sense in escaping. Maybe this is the escape for me.." as she held his gaze and licked her lips.

Like she hadn't been just standing beneath the almost boiling hot water fantasizing about how his lips felt on hers, how his hand felt when it touched her, how she loved the way he could be rough and forceful yet still remain at least partially a gentleman about it.

She knew, or thought she did, of course, that he was only interested because she was a girl, he was missing certain aspects of being a member of the human race and not just a goverment killing machine, and he just wanted those things from her. But she also knew that whatever she was feeling for him wasn't going away anytime soon.

It actually seemed to be growing. No matter what she did to stop it.

"What's that mean?" Bucky asked as he leaned in, grabbed the towel's edge and held it shut for her just as it was about to slip, his eyes dancing as he fixed them on her.

"It means, James, that this is probably the biggest adventure in my entire life." she said as she closed her smaller hand over his large rough one and then managed a sheepish smile, her skin flushing at how close she'd almost come to losing the towel just now. He chuckled and then said quietly, "I can imagine." while holding her gaze.

She raised to tiptoe and brushed her lips to his stubbly cheek, wincing as she told him quietly, "And you, soldier.. You need to shave. Stubble burn is a pain in the ass."

"Stubble burn?" Bucky asked, brow raised as she said "When you kiss me and that prickly stubble where your beard or whatever is brushes my skin. That is stubble burn." while trailing her finger along his lower lip which curved into a pout.

She bit her lower lip and then said quietly, "This isn't right. It shouldn't be happening. But I'm sick of fighting it."

"Then don't, Blondie. For once in your life, do what you want to do." Bucky challenged her, even as he reminded himself mentally,_ 'You fucking insane, Barnes? This is not gonna end well for you. And leading her on, even if you really do care and you want her more than you've wanted anything in a really, really long damn time.. It's not fair to her. When Hydra catches you, they'll kill you. If SHIELD beats them to it? There's no telling what that bastard Fury will have his little Avengers do to you. But nothing ends with you two being happy, riding off into the sunset, making love on a beach under the sunset.'_

"Earth to James.. You zoned on me." Natalie said calmly as he shook his head and said quietly "Gonna go out for a smoke."

He turned and walked out, she pouted to herself and let her heart rate go back to normal. Things were really starting to heat up and she knew she should s top it, but she didn't really have the willpower anymore.

She didn't actually WANT to fight it anymore.


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-**

**I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.**

**Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!**

* * *

CHAPTER 09

She sat up in bed, gasping as she rubbed her eyes, tried to shake the panic she'd felt, the terror. The nightmare just now had been much too real for her, all she could hear was screaming and she could smell gunpowder, she could vaguely make out shapes, as if she were hidden from sight but watching the whole thing from her hiding spot. She'd seen them, the men in black, the Hydra operatives, kick down the front door to this cozy little bungalow they were hiding out in currently, and she'd seen James fall to the ground. The dream, or nightmare, rather, felt entirely too real and before she realized what she was actually doing, she was sliding out of the bed big enough for two but only inhabited currently, by her, and slowly creeping down the hallway as her throat closed up and her stomach twisted into a thousand tiny knots.

Her mind screamed at her the entire time, _"This guy is bad for you, toxic. You shouldn't give a flying fuck in space whether he lives or dies. Yet here you are, stumbling towards him in the dark. When exactly are you going to try and escape? Because girl? From where I stand? Doesn't look like you're trying too damn hard. Looks like you're happy here." _while still another part of her brain argued back **'Exactly. The heart wants what it wants.. And Natasha's never gonna come rescue your ass. So why not enjoy being trapped and on the run with a white hot stud? Especially one who actually treats you worth a crap.. No, he treats you like a princess, actually. He hasn't deliberately tried to hurt you, at all. Everything he's done, Nattie? It's been to save you.' **as she got closer to the den, where he was sleeping on the couch.

She stood in the doorway, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest, fighting back a giggle when he started to snore louder than she'd thought was humanly possible. Her heart rate slowed, returned to normal and she moved closer still to the couch, in the dark. _"Only way I'm gonna know that doesn't happen is to camp out in here. It's the least I can do. He doesn't know who's the good guy or the bad one anymore, that's why he is the way he is. And he's in a whole lot of trouble, most it because of me." _she thought to herself as she tentatively sat down on the couch just as he rolled over, facing her direction. She leaned downward, pulling up a throw blanket on the end of the couch over him, over herself and he muttered quietly, "You okay, Blondie?"

"Yeah, just had this dream or something creep me out." she admitted, omitting of course that the dream had been vivid and scary, and it'd been about him dying and it'd scared the living hell out of her, and now that knowledge was scaring the living hell out of her too. Her mind was spinning a mile a minute and he asked in the dark, in a husky and sleepy whisper, "And ya came in here.. With me.." smiling in amusement to himself in the dark.

"Yeah, I did, okay? I just don't wanna be alone. Not right now." she admitted, her skin heating all over as his rough and very human hand brushed through her hair and he asked casually, "This happen a lot?" while moving so that there was a little more room for her in front of him. She wiggled into place and he grunted, tried to ignore the way it felt as she wiggled and soon snugged her body against him, how his hand felt moving slowly over the smooth and warm bare skin. How his lips grazed the back of her neck by accident.

He'd been having a nightmare too, but of course he'd never admit it, it'd mean he wasn't as masculine as he thought himself to be. And right now, he had to keep his shit together internally. He already had enough going on with the way she managed to make him feel, the way she stirred longings in him that he'd thought left when the Hydra agents turned him into something a lot less like human and a lot more like monster.

She laced her fingers through his where they rested on her hip and looked up at him, asked quietly, "Are you okay, Bucky?" biting her lower lip. He noticed, of course, she'd slipped, she'd called him by his nickname and not his real name like she'd s tubbornly insisted on doing until now apparently, but he didn't comment on it. Instead he looked down at her and nodded, careful to keep any trace of doubt, fear or anything else hidden.

The last thing he wanted was for her to worry any more.

Especially when she was obviously the one with the nightmare problem and not him. Even as he lie there knowing he'd just had another nightmare, one in which Hydra burst in and took her and there was nothing he could do about it because they immobilized him by shooting the serum they'd had him on directly into his heart and he'd collapsed into a heap on the floor.

He'd been useless in the dream and that alone was more than enough to frustrate him. His nagging conscience spoke up and said with a taunting laugh, _'She's supposed to be your girl.. Or at least that's what you keep tellin yourself she will be when this is all done.. But you know what's gonna happen, man.. Nobody's gonna make it out of this alive. Not you, probably not her.. You're a damn idiot if you think there's any shot at happiness anywhere for you.' _

Her other hand trailed slowly across his cheek and rested there as her leg swung over his hip. "Make yourself comfortable, Blondie." he said with a chuckle as she looked up at him and nodded, her eyes sort of dancing as she locked them on his and held his gaze intently. She looked like she were trying to work up the nerve to say or do something, but he pulled her against him and then smirked at her in the dark as he said in a teasing tone of voice "Since you're gonna make yourself comfortable.." which made her cheeks darken a little. She kissed him and he deepened the kiss, groaning a little as he muttered quietly, "So.. This nightmare.. Feel better now?"

"Much better." Natalie admitted as he nodded and said simply, "Then it's going to be okay. Let's get some sleep."

* * *

Natasha bit her lower lip as she watched the computer screen. If the tracking algorithm worked, she'd be seeing exactly where her sister was in a matter of seconds. And if they could get a positive id on the address, she'd have her sister home in a day at least. Her breathing hitched nervously and she tried to hide it but Steve gave her shoulder a firm and friendly squeeze as the computer screen filled with what looked like her sister..

Sleeping on a couch, in the arms of the Winter Soldier.

Eyes turned to her and she looked at them. "Did he know her already?" Fury demanded. Natasha couldn't actually answer that question because of course, until the night her sister supposedly got abducted, she hadn't seen her in quite a few years. She sighed to herself and said calmly, "This wasn't a set up, Fury, she didn't help him escape. I was there, I saw it."

"Hydra is good.. Maybe you saw what they wanted you to see, Natasha. Shut the screen down. Natasha? Come with me. We need to have a serious talk now." Fury demanded as Natasha bit her lip and fell in behind Fury.

If he thought Natalie was part of Hydra, that she was working with Winter Soldier somehow, chances were she'd never see her baby sister again. She had to do something.. Her mind was racing, she was frantic, desperate.


End file.
